• Former Basque regional premier Patxi López to preside over Mesa Directiva •
In a sign of how unusual Spain’s current political climate has become, the second-ranking opposition Socialist party (PSOE) will see its representative selected as the new Speaker of Spain’s 350 member Congress today, in a switch from the usual practice of granting that post to the party which won the most votes in the last general elections.
On Dec. 20th, the conservative ruling Partido Popular (PP) of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was the top vote-getter and won 123 seats in Congress, but an agreement between the second-place Socialists (90 seats) and fourth-place centre-right Ciudadanos party (40 seats), plus abstention from the voting by the PP will give the Speaker’s seat to veteran Socialist party leader Patxi López.
A former regional premier of the Basque Country from 2009 and 2012 and a politician known for consensus-building, López will preside over a Mesa Directiva in the new Congress that will include an additional deputy speaker role for the PSOE, plus three seats for the PP and two each for Ciudadanos and the anti-austerity Podemos party, which placed third and garnered 69 seats with its coalition partners in the Dec. 20th elections.
► Read the Full Story in English at El País …
