Spanish Socialist party leader Pedro Sanchez on Friday lost another parliamentary vote in his bid to become prime minister, prolonging the deadlock in the nation’s politics.
It is now increasingly likely that Spain will have to hold new elections in June. Far from helping end the political standoff since inconclusive elections in December last year, this week’s heated debate over Sanchez’s nomination opened fresh wounds that will further complicate any new coalition talks.
On Wednesday, lawmakers rejected Sanchez in a first round of voting. On Friday, he lost again, securing 131 out of 350 votes, just one more than he won on Wednesday.
Photo: AP
Sanchez was backed by lawmakers of his own party as well as those of Ciudadanos, or Citizens, which struck a deal with him to form a coalition government.
However, lawmakers from the Popular Party of Acting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and lawmakers from Podemos voted against Sanchez.
Spainish King Felipe VI will now have two months to decide whether to give any party leader another opportunity to try to form a government. He faces an uphill struggle to find a suitable nominee, given the antagonism and contradictions displayed this week in parliament by the main party leaders.
While calling for an alliance between Podemos and the Socialists, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias forcefully criticized Sanchez for turning his back on a possible coalition and instead reaching a deal with Ciudadanos.
Speaking to lawmakers, Iglesias also questioned the record of the Socialists in government by bringing up past scandals, including paramilitary killings in the 1990s, when a Socialist, Felipe Gonzalez, was prime minister.
Gonzalez, who remains influential in the Socialist party, later told reporters that he could not understand why Iglesias had so much “rage and hatred.”
Rajoy also torpedoed a possible coalition between his party and the Socialists, which he had advocated, by telling Sanchez that the attempt to replace him as prime minister was fraudulent and amounted to “a farce.”
In December, Rajoy’s party won the most votes, but lost its parliamentary majority. Sanchez was then unexpectedly given a chance to try to become prime minister after Rajoy turned down the king’s offer to form a government, saying that he did not have sufficient support among lawmakers.
Recent opinion polls indicate that even if elections are held in June, they are unlikely to pull Spain out of its political quagmire. Voters are expected to mostly stick with the parties they backed in December, which would result in another deeply fragmented parliament in which no single party comes close to holding a majority of the seats.
On Friday, Sanchez unsuccessfully tried to convince lawmakers that the vote should be a referendum on Rajoy’s leadership.
“Do we want Rajoy to continue at the helm of the government; yes or no?” he asked lawmakers.
Rajoy responded by telling Sanchez that instead of presenting a coherent government program, “you have wasted our time and generated false expectations.”
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