Last attempt to avoid third elections
King calls new round of parliament talks for last week in October
KING Felipe VI has called a new round of talks with representatives of political parties in parliament with a view to calling a final investiture vote on October 29.
Talks will be held on October 24 and 25, after which, if King Felipe believes a candidate has sufficient support, he will inform parliament speaker Ana Pastor before leaving for Colombia to attend the 25th Ibero-American summit.
If a vote can be called, the required investiture debate would take place on October 27 and 28, with the voting set for Saturday, October 29.
This would be the last possible date to avoid a third election, providing one of the candidates obtains an overall majority or a simple majority the following day.
Sr Rajoy already has the support of 170 MPs including his own PP colleagues and members of the Ciudadanos party.
With no other parties wishing to add their MPs to form a coalition, an overall majority is impossible (176 MPs required), so the acting PM would have to settle for a simple majority (more votes in favour than against) on Sunday, October 30.
Radical left-wing party Podemos and the nationalist groups continue to announce they will be voting against Sr Rajoy.
So the ball is now in the PSOE party's court as only if its MPs abstain from voting would PP leader Mariano Rajoy be voted to become PM for a third term.
The Socialists will be holding a federal committee meeting on Sunday, October 23 (the day before the talks with the King have been called). The PSOE leaders must then decide if they will abstain from voting, thus handing power over to their main political rivals, or continue to vote against Sr Rajoy, thus leading Spain to a third general election in one year.
If no PM can be sworn in by November 1, parliament will be automatically dissolved and a general election process triggered.
In this case, parties have filed special legislation for the election to be held on December 18 and not on Christmas Day, as the usual electoral calender would have established. This would mean the election campaign would be cut short by one week.