Pedro Sánchez wins knife-edge vote to be PM
Socialist leader was voted PM thanks to 167 votes in favour and 18 crucial abstentions including those of ERC Catalan independentist MPs
THE PARLIAMENT has chosen Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez to form a new government, ending almost a year of political limbo.
He won a cliff-hanger confidence vote 167-165, with 18 abstentions - the slimmest victory for a prime minister candidate in decades.
His party will lead a leftist coalition with the Unidas Podemos party as junior partner.
Sr Sanchez needed the votes or abstention promise of an array of smaller parties to win. His supporters in parliament erupted into a standing ovation when the result of the vote was announced in the chamber.
The hairline margin of victory has raised doubts about how long the coalition government will last, as its policies require regular parliamentary approval.
Coalition governments are common in Europe, but it is Spain's first since the country returned to democracy in 1978.
"A progressive coalition is going to govern because that is what Spaniards decided," Sr Sanchez told the house before the vote.
The 47-year-old has been caretaker prime minister since early last year.
He was sworn in on Wednesday but has stated he will not be announcing his full Cabinet formation until next week.
His PSOE party won two consecutive general elections in 2019, but both times they failed to capture a parliamentary majority. That meant they could not win the parliamentary confidence vote required before taking office.
In weeks of negotiations since the last election in November, Mr Sanchez mustered enough support - or promises to abstain - from a handful of small regional parties to take power.
But he has been widely criticised for the deal he clinched with the regional Catalan ERC party for it to abstain in Tuesday's vote. ERC, which holds 13 seats, is one of several groups that want Cataluña's independence from Spain.
Opposition parties, most of them right-wing, have lambasted Sr Sanchez for striking deals with parties intent on breaking up Spain, though he has insisted he will not allow the region's secession.
Pablo Casado, leader of the main PP opposition centre-right party described Sr Sanchez as an 'extremist' for putting the government in the hands of 'terrorists and coup supporters' in references to the deals made with Basque and Catalan separatist parties to abstain in Tuesday's vote.
The Socialists defend the deal with ERC, saying the Catalan crisis must be resolved through talks, something they have agreed to do with the ERC.
Sr Sanchez tried to get elected in a first parliamentary confidence vote last Sunday, but he fell far short of the target of 176 votes. Under Spanish law, in the second round of voting on
Photo EFE
Tuesday he needed only a simple majority - more votes for him than against him.
King Felipe VI asked him to try to form a government following the November 10 ballot, when the Socialists got the most votes but only 120 seats in the 350-seat parliament.
Sr Sanchez and Unidas Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias say they want to raise minimum salaries, income tax for high earners and capital gains tax. They also vow to defend women's and immigrants' rights.
Some of the economic proposals, added to their promise to scrap the labour reform approved by the previous PP government which as applauded by Brussels, will place the new government under EU scrutiny.