Socialist leader wins vote to oust Spain’s Rajoy

MADRID — The leader of Spanish Socialist party Pedro Sanchez became prime minister on Friday after centerright Mariano Rajoy was voted out of office in a closely fought no-confidence motion triggered by a long-running corruption trial.

The motion, called by Sanchez, won 180 votes for, 169 against and 1 abstention.

Sanchez is expected to take office by Monday and his cabinet appointed next week.

Rajoy admitted defeat ahead of the vote. “It’s been an honor — there is none bigger — to have been Spain’s prime minister,” he told parliament after congratulating Sanchez, with lawmakers from his conservative Popular Party giving him a standing ovation.

He became the first Spanish leader to lose a no-confidence vote since the country transitioned to democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Although Rajoy survived a similar vote last year, Friday’s ballot drew a line under the 63-year-old’s rollercoaster time in office which began in 2011 and saw him implementing drastic spending cuts before winning re-election in 2015 and 2016.

Despite winning the last two votes, he lacked the absolute majority of his first term.

He put Spain back onto the path of growth after a devastating economic crisis although unemployment remains sky-high, jobs precarious and many complain inequalities have risen.

But his term in office was also marred by a series of corruption scandals.

Rajoy became Spain’s first sitting prime minister to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness last year.

In order to push through the no-confidence motion, the Socialists, who hold just 84 of the parliament’s 350 seats, have had to cozy up to parties they have previously clashed with, like Catalan separatists and the anti-establishment Podemos.

As such, even if he has pledged to govern long enough to restore “institutional stability”, Sanchez’s new government will likely be highly unstable.

Aitor Esteban of the Basque PNV nationalist party, whose support proved decisive for the motion’s success, said on Thursday that such a minority government would be “weak and difficult, complicated”.

“This is going to be a constant bing, bang, boom,” Esteban added.