VOX became the first far-right party to win seats in the Spanish parliament since the Franco era yesterday’s snap general election.

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) won the most seats and is expected to govern in a coalition. Discussions with the left Podemos party are being held in an attempt to reach a deal.

Despite Vox’s return of 2.6 million votes, the results did not necessarily show a lurch to the right as the party benefited from a drop in support for the conservative People’s Party (PP), which lost some 3.6 million votes.

Vox will take up 24 seats in the Cortes, while the centre-right Ciudadanos party upped its votes by about a million to secure 57 seats.

Vox dominated the headlines during campaigning with its Trump-like pledge to “make Spain great again” and aggressive posturing on crime, immigration and Islam.

The PP struck a deal in December with the far-right party to form a regional government in Andalusia. But the relationship with Vox — the parties have also demonstrated together in Madrid — appears to have damaged Pablo Casado’s party.

PSOE leader Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared “the future has won” in an address to supporters in Madrid. His party received 30 per cent of the vote and 123 seats.

Oriol Junqueras’s independence-seeking Catalan Republican Left (ERC) picked up 13 or 14 seats in the election, but a coalition with PSOE could prove to be tricky. Mr Sanchez declared at a Barcelona rally on Friday that there would be “no referendum and no independence.”

Mr Junqueras faces trial for sedition, rebellion and embezzlement of public funds over the 2017 referendum on Catalan independence which led to Madrid taking control of the region and jailing leading politicians for their role in organising the poll.

Spain will go to the polls again next month in municipal, regional and European elections.