Despite Feijóo’s party winning July’s snap poll, his rival Pedro Sánchez remains best placed to form a government

• Explainer: what happened in Spain’s snap general election?

Two months after winning July’s general election but failing to secure a parliamentary majority, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) is launching an almost certainly doomed bid to become the country’s next prime minister.

Although the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, finished first in the snap election, it failed to win enough votes to form a government, taking 137 seats in Spain’s 350-seat congress. Despite the arithmetical challenge, King Felipe has asked the party to try to form a government during this week’s investiture session, which begins with a day of debate on Tuesday.

Polls suggest conservative PP will need the support of far-right Vox party to form a government

Spaniards are heading to the polls to vote in a bitterly contested general election that could see the far right play a key role in government for the first time since the country returned to democracy after General Franco’s death five decades ago.

The vote, called two months ago by Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, after his Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) suffered a drubbing in May’s regional and municipal elections, offers people a stark choice between the left and right blocs.

Pedro Sánchez announces subsidy as his Socialist party lags behind conservative opposition in polls

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a new scheme that will allow over-65s to go to the cinema every Tuesday for just €2 (£1.76) two weeks before the country heads to the polls for crucial regional and municipal elections.

The subsidy, announced during a campaign event in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, comes a year after Sánchez’s minority coalition government introduced a youth culture voucher scheme that gives Spaniards turning 18 €400 to spend on books, records, digital subscriptions, festivals, concerts, plays, exhibitions and films.

Conservative judges froze passage of measures meant to overhaul appointments to their court

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has vowed to use “whatever measures are needed” to end to a long-running judicial deadlock after conservative judges at the country’s constitutional court took the unprecedented step of suspending the passage of legislation that would overhaul the way appointments to their court are made.

Last week, Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition government managed to get its changes to the penal code through congress, the lower house of Spain’s parliament.

People’s party expected to repeat 2018 defeat of Socialists – but failure to gain absolute majority could lead to deal with far right

People in Andalucía have gone to the polls in an early regional election that the incumbent conservative People’s party is expected to win comfortably, in what would be a blow to Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, before a national vote expected at the end of 2023.

More than 6 million people are eligible to vote in Spain’s most populous region, where temperatures were expected to cool slightly after a week of extreme heat that officials feared would reduce turnout.