Spanish PM is Corbyn’s hard-Left colleague
SOCIALIST party leader Pedro Sanchez is set to become the new prime minister of Spain after a no-confidence vote in parliament unseated Mariano Rajoy’s weakened conservative government.
Mr Sanchez, leader of the largest opposition party, could be sworn in as early as today, with Cabinet appointments taking place next week.
Sanchez, 46, is known as ‘Mr Handsome’ in Spain and is a close ally of British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Just last month he was pictured meeting the Labour leader and shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry in London.
The end of Mr Rajoy’s six-year reign as PM was the first removal of a serving leader by the parliament in Madrid in four decades of democracy.
The reputation of Mr Rajoy’s Popular Party was badly damaged by a court verdict last week which identified it as a beneficiary of a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.
Mr Sanchez seized his opportunity and managed to muster enough support from smaller parties to send him to La Moncloa palace, the seat of government in Madrid.
The 46-year-old takes the helm of the fourth largest economy in the eurozone as the EU faces challenges, including Britain’s departure from the bloc and migrants continuing to enter the continent.
The Madrid stock exchange index rose nearly 1.6 per cent after he won the vote.