• PSOE leader says he will look to political right and left for coalition support •
Facing repeated denials by the conservative Popular Party (PP) that acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy will be first to seek to form the new government, Socialist party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez says that if asked by King Felipe VI in his Tuesday meeting with the Spanish head of state, he will seek to form a coalition government and will look to either the centre-right Ciudadanos party or to the new-left, anti-austerity party Podemos for support.
Countering internal PSOE dissension from regional party leaders to any accord with Podemos, Sánchez made a surprise announcement at Saturday’s federal committee meeting of the PSOE that he will submit any coalition deal he may reach to a referendum vote of the party’s rank-and-file, which recent opinion polls have shown are more favorable toward an accord with Podemos than are many of the party’s leaders.
Meanwhile, reports say the media “fear” campaign by PP spokespersons aimed at PSOE party leaders, emphasizing that Sánchez has refused to talk with Rajoy while courting the “radicals” and “extremists” of the Podemos and pro-independence parties, will now be widened to target the PSOE party rank-and-file in an effort to undermine support for Sánchez, if and when he submits a vote on a coalition with Podemos to his party’s bases for ratification.
► Read the Full Story in Spanish at La Vanguardia …
► Read the Full Story in English at Bloomberg …
