• PSOE leader says negotiators should start work toward coalition accord •
The leader of Spain’s Socialist party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, has called on new-left, anti-austerity party Podemos to first enter into talks with PSOE negotiators toward finding common ground for a coalition government before he will hold any private meeting with Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias.
Sánchez’s remarks in a press conference on Tuesday came less than 24 hours after Podemos released a 98-page outline of its requirements for joining a PSOE-led coalition government, accompanied by Iglesias’s call for a private meeting between the two to discuss the proposal prior to beginning any formal party negotiations.
Sánchez said he had provided the Podemos document to PSOE’s negotiating team to study and prepare a formal response, but implied that Iglesias may be more interested in a photo opportunity than actual negotiations: “I would be happy to meet with him, but I would like to meet with him to sign an agreement and to sign an agreement what we have to do first is negotiate … it’s time to work, to negotiate and that’s what Spaniards are expecting from us.”
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