Spain’s caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has admitted defeat in his bid to be confirmed as the country’s premier after he failed to draw enough support to secure a post-election parliamentary vote of confidence.
The socialist premier said that the parliament remains blocked during a speech he delivered at the lower house on Thursday, noting that a deal for a coalition government with the far-left Unidas Podemos party had “not been possible.”
The development came a day after talks between the Spanish Socialists and far-left Unidas Podemos, an electoral alliance, on supporting Sanchez broke off. The alliance has been formed by Podemos, United Left, Equo and other left-wing parties.
The caretaker premier, whose Socialist party secured the most seats in an April election but failed to achieve a majority, needed Podemos’ backing to win the vote, which means Spain moves a step closer to holding its fourth such elections in as many years.
Now, Sanchez will have another two months to find ways of gaining support, either for a minority or coalition government. If no deal is signed, Spain will have to go back to the polls on November 10, 2019.
Sanchez assumed power in June last year after ousting conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote over allegations of a corruption scandal.
Catalan pro-independence MP’s in the parliament, for their part, refused to give Sanchez the support he needed to pass the 2019 budget bill in February due to the anger at the trial of their leaders in Madrid.
The region in northeastern Spain was the scene of a secession attempt in 2017 that sparked the country’s biggest crisis in decades and caused major concern in Europe. Since then, the crisis has continued to cast a pall over Spanish politics.
PressTV. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
