• Socialists hold fast to their veto of acting-Prime Minister’s candidacy
• PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez tears into Rajoy over corruption, social cuts
Spain’s Socialist party (PSOE) shot down the candidacy of conservative Partido Popular (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy to lead Spain’s next government in a first-round ballot on Wednesday, with party leader Pedro Sánchez making eminently clear that the PSOE would again vote against Rajoy in a second-round vote scheduled for Friday evening.
Rajoy lost the first round balloting by a vote of 180-170, securing only the votes of his own party, centre-right Ciudadanos and a single vote from centre-right Coalición Canaria — falling just six votes shy of a 176-vote absolute majority needed to govern in the 350-seat Congress, Spain’s lower house of Parliament. The centre-left Socialists led the block of votes against Rajoy, casting their 85 ballots against the PP leader, along with the 71 Deputies of the left-wing Unidos Podemos coalition and its regional allies, plus nationalist parties from the Basque Country and Catalonia.
After making clear just five seconds into his speech that the Socialists would stick to their decision to vote against Rajoy, Sanchez went on to lambast the acting-Prime Minister with a litany of the charges of corruption pending against Rajoy’s party, as well as a detailed list of the cuts to social programs and workers rights during Rajoy’s 2011-2015 administration.
In second round-voting Friday evening, Rajoy would need only a simple majority of the Congressional Deputies present to win — requiring just 11 abstentions or absences from the opposition in the 350-seat Congress. But, Sanchez made clear in his speech Wednesday that the Socialists would not abstain on Friday, setting the stage for Rajoy’s near-certain defeat and kicking off weeks of political maneuvering prior to a 31st October deadline for formation of a new government or dissolution of Congress and new elections in December.
► ► CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH VIDEO ► ►
► Read More in Spanish at El Periódico, El Mundo and El País …
► Read More in English at El País, TheLocal.es and The Spain Report …
