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TEHRAN, Jul 26 - Spain’s parliament refused to accept Pedro Sanchez’s effort to be confirmed as the country’s prime minister.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The move is putting the country on a path to what could be its fourth national election in as many years - unless he succeeds in another attempt.
Sanchez’s failure to strike the coalition deal he needed to stay on as prime minister highlighted how tense and fragmented Spain’s political landscape has become, and there is no guarantee that a new election would fix that.
The 47-year-old Socialist leader, sometimes nicknamed the “comeback kid” for overcoming a series of setbacks to become prime minister last year, lost a first confirmation vote on Tuesday.
In theory, he has until mid-September to win parliament’s backing, but that could be a tall order after losing two votes by a considerable margin.
Sanchez received the support of only his own 123 Socialist lawmakers and one from Cantabria on Thursday. Everybody else either abstained or voted against him.
“I want to be Spain’s prime minister, but not at any price,” Sanchez told lawmakers ahead of the vote, adding that the far-left Unidas Podemos party led by Pablo Iglesias, with whom he had hoped to form a coalition, had made unacceptable demands.
“If in order to become prime minister I need to give up on my principles, if I need to form a government knowing it won’t be useful for the country, then it won’t be done now.”
The Socialists said this month they would give up on trying to make Sanchez prime minister if he failed to secure confirmation in July.
Sanchez said late on Thursday that he was not giving up, however. He did not give any details or say when he might try again to be voted in.
“It’s not time to throw the towel in. Mr Iglesias has blocked a progressive government for the second time but that doesn’t mean that I will give up. Now we need to reflect,” Sanchez told Telecinco.
Source: Reuters
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