• PSOE must submit any deal to membership approval before Congress vote •
A second session of negotiations is set to take place tonight among the Socialist party (PSOE), anti-austerity party Podemos, the United Left party (IU) and Valencia’s Compromís coalition, while the PSOE continues simultaneous talks in parallel with the centre-right Ciudadanos party aimed at constituting a new government for Spain.
PSOE negotiators are up against a looming deadline if party leader Pedro Sánchez is to be invested as Spain’s President next week and the Socialists insist that the four left-wing parties do not have enough votes to ensure Sánchez’s election without the votes of Ciudadanos, which today conditioned its support for PSOE on fast-tracking five Constitutional reforms.
Podemos had dropped its demand that PSOE not meet with Ciudadanos and Podemos negotiators simultaneously, but a closed-door meeting Monday between Sánchez and Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera prompted Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias to again insist that any PSOE-Ciudadanos accord will negate the possibility of Podemos supporting Sanchez’s bid for the Presidency.
► Read More in Spanish at El Mundo and El País…
► Read More in English at El País and The Spain Report …
