Vox challenges government to showdown

A motion of no confidence ( moción de censura) against the Socialist party ( PSOE) Podemos coalition government, brought by farright party Vox, will be voted on in the Spanish parliament at midday on Thursday, October 22. The preliminary debate will be held on Wednesday and the following morning started by Vox deputy for Barcelona, Ignacio Garriga, followed by their party leader and candidate for prime minister, Santiago Abascal. This is only the fifth motion of no confidence against a Spanish government during democracy, although the only one to succeed was in 2018, when current PM Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE ousted his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy of the Partido Popular ( PP).

Vox secretary general Javier Ortega Smith called for Spanish people to support the motion by

‘ coming out into the street saying “enough now”’, to a government which has ‘ turned Spain into a sewer and an indecent quagmire of the biggest criminals’. He insisted the country needs elections to choose a government that does not make pacts with ‘ separatists, communists and borderline terrorists’ ( in reference to budget negotiations with Basque party Bildu).

Vox spokesman Jorge Buxade called on PP leader Pablo Casado to support the motion. However, both the PP and the Ciudadanos party have indicated that they will not back the farright party, which would doom their bid to failure.