Delete
Spain’s parliament during the ‘vote of no confidence’ debate.
Vote of no confidence in PM fails as left-wing parties draw closer

Vote of no confidence in PM fails as left-wing parties draw closer

Podemos’ attempt to unseat Mariano Rajoy fails in a week when Spain remembers 40 years since the first general election after dictatorship

SUR

Friday, 16 June 2017, 12:44

Compartir

Spains prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, lived to fight another day on Wednesday when an attempt to end his minority conservative government failed.

In only the third no confidence motion tabled against a government since Spains post-dictatorship democracy started exactly forty years ago, Rajoy secured the support of 170 MPs, against 82 who voted in favour of the motion and 97 abstentions.

The motion was tabled by radical left-wing party Podemos to unseat the ruling Partido Popular (PP) party. Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias, had said that the government should be changed after the continued corruption scandals involving the PP party.

In the end, after Iglesias no confidence vote had failed, as had been expected, both Podemos and PP were able to claim victory.

Podemos, which was supported in the vote by left-wing Catalonian and Basque nationalists as well as its own regional affiliates, was heartened that the Socialist PSOE party had abstained rather than vote against.

The PSOE party, under the renewed leadership of Pedro Sánchez, is seen as more in favour of a progressive alliance with Podemos to unseat the PP. The Socialists celebrate their 39th full-party conference this weekend.

Iglesias said after the vote in the Congreso de los Diputados in Madrid, Between votes in favour and abstentions, theres a sufficient majority to throw out the PP. Lets hope by Christmas we can get rid of the PP.

The events in parliament come exactly forty years since Spaniards went to the polls in the first general election after Francos dictatorship ended.

Faced with pressure from a promised, illegal independence vote in Catalonia in October, many MPs who supported Rajoy in Wednesdays failed vote called on politicians to respect the consensus over the shape of Spain reached after dictatorship.

Reporta un error en esta noticia

* Campos obligatorios