The People's Party, led by former Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy, won an absolute majority in parliament and is expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt storm threatening the whole euro zone.

Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led the country from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, Spain is heading into its second recession in four years.

Spaniards, who voted in pouring rain on November 20, were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy.

The PP won the biggest majority for any party in three decades, taking 186 seats in the 350-seat lower house, according to official results with 99.95 percent of the vote counted.