By MARIANNE BARRIAUX

MADRID — Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was the big winner of European elections in Spain on Sunday with his ruling Socialists coming first, a result he will likely use to wield more influence in the bloc.

With Spain the only major EU country where the Socialists topped the polls, Sanchez has emerged as the big hope for European social democrats.

"We are going to be the biggest social democrat delegation, and that's a source of pride for us, it's an opportunity, but also an enormous responsibility," a radiant Sanchez told reporters.

The Socialist Party (PSOE) also scored big in local and regional elections on Sunday, putting Sanchez in a stronger position as he seeks to form a new government following a general election on April 28.

Official results showed the Socialist Party came first with close to 33 percent of the vote in the elections to the European parliament, gaining 20 seats.

Trailing behind was the conservative Popular Party (PP), which won just over 20 percent.

Newly-emerged far-right party Vox, meanwhile, got just over six percent of the vote and will enter the European parliament with three seats.

But it has lost ground since the general election in which it won 10 percent, allowing it to burst into the national parliament for the first time.

The European polls also saw Catalonia's former separatist president Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain in 2017 after a failed secession bid, and his ex-deputy Oriol Junqueras, currently in jail, elected as MEPs.

The Socialists' win is a victory for Sanchez, not only domestically but further afield in the bloc where he is expected to use his win to push for outgoing Foreign Minister Josep Borrell to become the next EU foreign policy chief. — AFP