SPAIN TO GET 'REAL' GOVERNMENT TOMORROW

Second investiture vote tomorrow would avoid third election

SPAIN could have a 'real' PM this weekend at last.

Acting PM and PP leader Mariano Rajoy was the proposed candidate following a series of meetings with King Felipe VI held earlier this week with parliamentary political groups.

The acting PM could finally be officially sworn in thanks to his main political rivals, the PSOE socialist party.

On Sunday, the PSOE agreed that all of its MPs should abstain from voting in the second round of this week’s investiture debate, allowing Mariano Rajoy to be re-elected to office.

Sunday’s meeting of the PSOE’s Federal Committee voted in favour of the proposal three weeks after its secretary general, Pedro Sánchez, resigned rather than consider abstaining.

The PSOE abstention will mean that Mariano Rajoy should be elected head of a minority government, with 137 of his own MPs supported by 32 of the centrist Ciudadanos party and one from the Canarias coalition, giving him a total of 170, five short of the total needed for a majority.

The abstention of the 85 So- cialist MPs will see him opposed by just 95 votes, made up of 71 from the anti-austerity Podemos party and 24 from MPs representing minor parties.

The decision for all the Socialist MPs to abstain produced further divisions within the PSOE on Sunday, with some delegates arguing that only 11 should abstain, which would have given Rajoy a majority of one in the investiture debate. Others maintained that there should be no abstentions, with some rebel PSOE deputies threatening to defy the party line and vote against Rajoy in- stead of abstaining.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Parliament speaker Ana Pastor has called the investiture session for Wednesday and PM Mariano Rajoy addressed the house to offer agreements on key issues, although he admitted many of his electoral promises would not be approved due to lack of support.

All parties' representatives delivered speaches throughout yesterday's (Thursday) session that ended with the investiture first vote in the evening.

Only an overall majority would have been acceptable and the PSOE voted against Sr Rajoy, as expected on this occasion.

By law, a second vote will take place 48 hours later - tomorrow evening - in which a simple majority will suffice.

With the promised abstention of at least 11 PSOE MPs in that vote, Mariano Rajoy will be elected PM.

However, as King Felipe VI is attending the Ibero-Amercian Summit in Colombia until Saturday, the official PM's appointment by the King will not take place until Sunday.