Final ballots are being counted in Spain’s general election.

It looks like Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is the winner.

But his party fell short of getting the majority needed to form a government.

CGTN’s Filio Kontrafouri reports. 

pain’s governing center-left Socialists won the country’s election Sunday but must seek backing from smaller parties to maintain power, while a far-right party rode an unprecedented surge of support to enter the lower house of parliament for the first time in four decades.

With 99 percent of ballots counted, the Socialists led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won 29 percent of the vote, capturing 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies. The new far-right Vox party made its national breakthrough by capturing 10 percent of the vote, which would give it 24 seats.

Sánchez announced that he would soon open talks with other political parties, telling crowds gathered at the gates of his party headquarters in central Madrid that “the future has won and the past has lost.”

He hinted at a preference for a left-wing governing alliance but also sent a warning to Catalan separatists whose support he may need that any post-electoral pact must respect the country’s 1978 constitution, which bans regions from seceding.

Vox’s success came at the expense of the once-dominant conservative Popular Party, which fell to 66 seats, losing more than half of its representation since the last election in 2016. The conservatives also lost votes to the center-right Citizens party, which will increase its number of seats from 32 to 57.

Historian and author Andrew Dowling discusses Spain’s election

CGTN’s Wang Guan speaks with historian Andrew Dowling about Spain’s election and what hopes there are to overcome gridlock in the country.

Some reporting from The Associated Press