Spain’s Socialist Leader Loses Another Vote to Become Prime Minister
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Version 0 of 1. MADRID — The leader of the Socialist party, Pedro Sánchez, on Friday lost another parliamentary vote in his bid to become prime minister, prolonging the deadlock in Spanish politics. It is now increasingly likely that Spain will have to hold new elections in June. Far from helping end the political standoff since inconclusive elections last December, this week’s heated debate over Mr. Sánchez’s nomination opened up fresh wounds that will further complicate any new coalition talks. On Wednesday, lawmakers rejected Mr. Sánchez in a first round of voting. On Friday, he lost again, securing 131 out of 350 votes, just one more than he had won on Wednesday. Mr. Sánchez was backed by lawmakers of his own party as well as those of Ciudadanos, or Citizens, a center-right party that had struck a deal with him to form a coalition government. But conservative lawmakers from the Popular Party of Mariano Rajoy, the acting prime minister, as well as those from the left-wing Podemos party, voted against Mr. Sánchez. Spain’s king, Felipe VI, will now have two months to decide whether to give any party leader another opportunity to try to form a government. He faces an uphill struggle to find a suitable nominee, given the antagonism and contradictions displayed this week in Parliament by the main party leaders. While calling for an alliance between Podemos and the Socialists, Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, forcefully criticized Mr. Sánchez for turning his back on a possible left-wing coalition and instead reaching a deal with Citizens. Speaking to lawmakers, Mr. Iglesias also questioned the record of the Socialists in government by bringing up past scandals, including paramilitary killings in the 1990s, when a Socialist, Felipe González, was prime minister. Mr. González, who remains influential in the Socialist party, later told reporters that he could not understand why Mr. Iglesias had so much “rage and hatred.” Mr. Rajoy also torpedoed a possible coalition between his conservative party and the Socialists, which he has advocated, by telling Mr. Sánchez that the attempt to replace him as prime minister was fraudulent and amounted to “a farce.” In December, Mr. Rajoy’s Popular Party won the most votes but lost its parliamentary majority. Mr. Sánchez was then unexpectedly given a chance to try to become prime minister after Mr. Rajoy turned down the king’s offer to form a government, saying that he did not have sufficient support among lawmakers. Even if elections are held in June, recent opinion polls indicate that they are unlikely to pull Spain out of this political quagmire. Voters are expected to mostly stick with the parties that they backed in December, which would result in another deeply fragmented Parliament in which no single party comes close to holding a majority of the seats. On Friday, Mr. Sánchez unsuccessfully tried to convince lawmakers that the vote should be a referendum on Mr. Rajoy’s leadership. “Do we want Mr. Rajoy to continue at the helm of the government, yes or no?” he asked lawmakers. Mr. Rajoy responded by telling Mr. Sánchez that instead of presenting a coherent government program, “you have wasted our time and generated false expectations.” |