• Podemos & PSOE at loggerheads, could threaten left coalition to oust PP •
Political confrontations on several issues in the first sessions of Spain’s new Congress have placed a damper on hopes for formation of a Socialist-led broad-left coalition government anytime soon.
The opposition-leading Socialist party (PSOE) made its first order of business in the new Congress the unprecedented election of an opposition Deputy as the new Speaker, striking agreement with the centre-right Ciudadanos party with the abstention of the conservative Popular Party (PP), in a deal that rankled the new-left Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias, whose party came third in the Dec. 20th general elections.
Podemos has charged the PSOE with having made a backroom deal with the PP, which won the most seats in the general election but is far shy of the 176 absolute majority needed to govern on its own, and then purposely rebuffing Podemos’ in its request to have its 69 deputies split into four parliamentary groups to represent the new-left party and each of its three regional coalition partners.
► Read the Full Story in English at El País …
