Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday that his party would not support acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as the head of government.
Advertisement
Spain has been in political limbo since two inconclusive national elections in December and June delivered the most fractured parliaments in four decades. “Without this step, it is not possible for the investiture to go through”, Rajoy told a news conference. Rajoy meets with party representatives Wednesday to discuss Ciudadanos’s offer as he seeks a way out of a political impasse that has stretched on for nearly eight months. None of the political forces has an absolute majority and thus can not form a government on their own.
And he’s yet to tackle the elephant in the room: the Socialists, with have 85 seats in the 350-seat parliament and have vowed to vote against Rajoy under any scenario, leaving him short even if Ciudadanos comes on board.
Rajoy, whose conservative People’s Party (PP) won the most votes in the elections, was expected to accept the reform package but instead emerged from a meeting of PP leaders on Wednesday saying only that he had won a mandate to talk to Ciudadanos.
Ciudadanos chief Albert Rivera will nevertheless meet with Rajoy on Thursday to try and clarify the situation, and see whether negotiations can start.
The Socialists, Unidos Podemos and other smaller parties have said they will vote against Rajoy in a confidence vote, which would end any chance of him taking power regardless of whether Ciudadanos backs him. But a third vote would be unlikely to break the deadlock as polls have shown little change.
Advertisement
“Ciudadanos has taken a step forward, the Socialist party has not taken a single one”.
