Spain’s Socialists under pressure to allow conservative to form government

MADRID: Spain’s Socialist leader faced mounting pressure Monday to let acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy form a new government and end a months-long political impasse, after his party suffered losses in two regional elections.

The Socialist party ( PSOE) lost ground in Sunday’s elections in the northern regions of Galicia and the Basque Country to new anti- austerity party Podemos, which is seeking to replace it as Spain’s main party on the left.

The PSOE finished fourth in the Basque region, behind Podemos, and was tied in Galicia with the En Marea coalition which includes Podemos with 14 seats each.

Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party ( PP) renewed its absolute majority in Galicia and lost just one seat in the Basque Country.

Pablo Casado, a senior PP member, said Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez “needs to reflect” and allow Rajoy to form a new government and end a monthslong political impasse.

But Sanchez told a news conference that his opposition to a PP-led minority government had not changed.

“The ‘no’ to Mr Rajoy... has never been more justified,” he said in his first public comments since the regional polls.

Spain is being run by a government without full powers after inconclusive elections in December and June that saw the PP win without an absolute majority and other parties fail to forge a rival coalition.

Rajoy’s PP is six seats short of the absolute majority of 176 seats it needs in a parliamentary confidence vote, even with the support of centrist party Ciudadanos, and one extra seat from a minor Canary Islands party.

The Socialists scored their worst ever showing in both elections, finishing second. — AFP

Rajoy (left) and Galician President and PP member Alberto Nunez Feijoo smile as party members clap at the start of an executive committee meeting at the party headquarters in Madrid, Spain. — Reuters photo