• Some PSOE leaders seek concessions from Rajoy in exchange for abstention
• Several regional ‘barons’ hope Rajoy failure would pave way for PSOE coalition
Less than 48 hours before Socialist party (PSOE) regional ‘barons’ meet Saturday in a closed-door session of the party’s Federal Committee, party leader Pedro Sánchez is being encouraged by some party leaders to vote a clear ‘No’ against the investiture as next prime minister of Mariano Rajoy of the Partido Popular (PP), while others are pushing for an abstention vote that would see Rajoy elected and the PSOE remain as the leading opposition party in Congress.
Former Socialist prime minister Felipe González is at the forefront of the latter group, telling the daily newspaper El País that while the PSOE should not enter a PP-led coalition government, the party should bargain its abstention for policy points and government reforms, extracting the maximum concessions from Rajoy while remaining the leading opposition party.
While some PSOE regional ‘barons’ are said to share that position, others — including Miguel Iceta of the opposition PSC-PSOE in Catalonia and Balearic Islands President Francina Armengol — are urging Sánchez to vote against Rajoy in a gambit to see the PP leader’s investiture bid fail, enabling Sánchez to relaunch his own bid to put together a reformist and progressive coalition government.
However unlikely that possibility seems, given the PSOE’s loss of five seats in Congress since the 20th December general election, anti-austerity party Podemos (We Can) has said it is still willing to negotiate a progressive government with the PSOE should Rajoy’s investiture bid fail. So far, the Socialists appear adverse to any talks with Podemos, given that the scuttled negotiations between the two parties after the 20th December balloting is what led to the country’s second general election in six months on 26th June.
► Read More in Spanish at El País and El Mundo …
