Elections in Spain have delivered a hung Parliament for the second time in six months, with acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's centre-right People's Party (PP) emerging as the largest bloc but falling short of a majority.
The People's Party has 137 seats on 33 percent of the vote, while the Socialists are second with 85 seats. The left-wing Unidos Podemos has emerged third with 71 seats, and the centrist Ciudadanos Party emerged fourth with 32, reports the Guardian.
Rajoy who has been serving the PP since he was 22, when democracy had returned to Spain, appeared before a jubilant crowd waving Spanish flags and PP banners, saying, he was 'enormously proud of his party'.
"This party has had courage, enthusiasm and determination. There's always been someone - winning or losing - with a Partido Popular flag . Dear friends, you have won the elections because you have had faith in victory and because you've pursued it, " the Guardian quoted him, as saying.
The country now another round of backroom talks to see which parties can form a governing coalition, a task that eluded them despite months of negotiations following the December's inconclusive poll.
The election has once again left the euro zone's fourth-largest economy at risk of another lengthy political stalemate.