Opposition lines up support to expel Rajoy
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was heading for defeat in a noconfidence vote in the Spanish parliament on Friday as opposition parties lined up against him.
Legislators are due to vote on the no-confidence motion on Friday and party leaders speaking in the debate have already pledged Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez the backing he needs to replace Rajoy as prime minister.
Sanchez already had the support of the antiestablishment group Podemos and Esquerra Republicana, one of two Catalan separatist groups.
He added the other Catalan party, PdeCat, and the Basque Nationalists on Thursday.
The Basque Nationalists will support the Socialist motion to oust Rajoy, Aitor Esteban, the head of the party’s group of deputies, said in parliament.
“Our negative vote wouldn’t mean greater stability,” said Esteban. “We believe we serve the Basque people’s main demand by voting yes.”
Catalan pro-independence party PdeCat will also support the motion, said Carles Campuzano, the party’s spokesman in the Congress.
He said any attempt by Rajoy to resign before the vote on the motion takes place would be “a democratic fraud”.
The mood among People’s Party legislators was bleak on Thursday. Rajoy did not reappear for the afternoon session, just one of many empty seats in their ranks. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said he was disappointed by the Basques’ decision to back the Socialists.
Banco Santander chairman Ana Botin warned of a “certain concern” over the drama in parliament, Cinco Dias newspaper reported, citing comments she made in Bilbao.
She called on political leaders to reduce uncertainty, saying that foreign investors “have bet on Spain” but “there is starting to be a concern about whether trends in Spain may change”.
Navarrese People’s Union (UPN), an ally of Rajoy’s party, called for fresh elections in a further sign that the outlook is deteriorating for the premier.
Rajoy can trigger elections in the short term by resigning before legislators vote on the no-confidence motion.
“Immediate elections is the most democratic exit to this situation,” said Inigo Alli, one of the two UPN legislators in the chamber. “This is not about whether Mr Rajoy or Mr Sanchez should be the prime minister,” he said.
Prior to the political drama, Spain’s economy was on a firm footing. Final first-quarter figures from the statistics office confirmed an expansion of 0.7%. Growth is forecast to be 2.7% in 2018.
Rajoy was waiting to see whether the Basque Nationalists would side with the Socialists before deciding whether to resign or dig in, El Pais reported. The Basques moved closer to supporting the no-confidence motion after seeing it had the support of Catalan separatist parties, the newspaper said.
The Catalans have asked Sanchez to tone down his criticism of their regional president, Joaquim Torra, in his speech on Thursday, El Pais reported. Sanchez had previously called him a racist.
Both Rajoy and Sanchez are willing to call elections in the northern hemisphere autumn, according to website Vozpopuli. Sanchez would be willing to call elections for October.
With so much riding on Friday’s vote, and the backroom arm-twisting leading up to it, surprises cannot be ruled out. If Rajoy judges the vote is lost, he can still stop Sanchez from taking office by resigning.
Such a move would lead to snap elections rather than a straight switch to a Socialist-led government and buy time for his party to regroup.
The centrist Ciudadanos, the fourth-biggest party in parliament, has refused to back Sanchez so far, demanding fresh elections instead of a parliamentary coup. While it looked on Thursday as if Sanchez had outmaneuvered Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera, the Cuidadanos man enjoys a growing lead in opinion polls and would likely be the biggest winner of a snap election.
THE BASQUE NATIONALISTS WILL SUPPORT THE SOCIALIST MOTION TO OUST PRIME MINISTER RAJOY