• PSOE, Podemos traverse first dispute, focus shifts to possible Left-coalition •
Spain’s Socialist party (PSOE) and its new-left anti-austerity challenger Podemos have moved beyond an immediate clash over this week’s formation of parliamentary caucus groups, but dissatisfaction on the part of Podemos over the outcome still makes any path to the formation of a progressive coalition government difficult.
Internal divisions with the Podemos camp saw the exit of four Deputies from Valencian Coalition partner Compromís, unhappy that Podemos was unable to overcome opposition from other parties in Congress to fulfill a pre-election Podemos pledge to ensure that its three regional allies would each have their own parliamentary caucus group.
Despite nominal PSOE support to allow Podemos and its coalition partners to divide into two caucus groups in the Senate, the anti-austerity party leadership is smarting from the parliamentary defeat in Congress, which it immediately blamed on the PSOE — which chairs, but does not hold majority sway over the decision-making congressional Mesa Directiva.
The Compromís group, after distancing themselves from Podemos on a central Podemos demand that any left-coalition pact must favor an independence referendum vote in Catalonia, on Wednesday followed the lead of the smaller Izquierda Unida (United Left, or IU) party in saying they would back a PSOE-led coalition to govern Spain on progressive principles and in order to resolve the country’s pressing social problems.
► Read the Full Story in English at El País …
► Read the Full Story in Spanish at ABC …
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