• Socialist leader confirms party position of no support or abstention on Rajoy
• PP leader says barring PSOE abstention, may not present his candidacy at all
Socialist party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday told Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) that he cannot count on PSOE support in his investiture bid to form a new government, leading Rajoy to hint that without at least a promised abstention from the Socialists he may back away for the second time from presenting his candidacy for a vote in Congress in early August.
Following the meeting between the two leaders to discuss Rajoy’s invesititure bid, Sánchez told reporters that for the moment the PSOE would refuse to either vote for Rajoy’s candidacy or to abstain from voting and that the conservative party leader should try to put together sufficient votes from other parties with similar ideologies to form a coalition government.
Rajoy, in turn, told a press conference following the meeting that were the PSOE to agree to abstain, he would submit his candidacy for a vote as early as 2nd or 3rd August. But, barring such an agreement from the Socialists, he said that he may be forced not to present his candidacy at all, again throwing Spain’s process of forming the next government in disarray.
► Read More in Spanish at El País and El Mundo …
