Spain's Rajoy moves to form government
Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy seeks the support of the Socialist Party and the liberal Ciudadanos to form a government.
A spokesman for Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) told the TVE television Friday that the premier will call Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Socialist Party, and Albert Rivera, the leader of the Ciudadanos, for the matter.
Rajoy is eager "to form a government as soon as possible," the spokesman said.
Since December 2015, when Spain's election ended inconclusively, the country has been without a proper government. In June, the PP won more parliamentary seats at a second vote. It, however, did not reach the 176 needed to form a majority government.
Rajoy, who has the backing of 137 PP seats in parliament, now needs the backing, or at least the abstention, of other parties to win a confidence vote in the 350-seat lower house of parliament.
The Socialists have 85 seats, the Unidos Podemos group led by the Leftist Podemos party has 71 seats, and the Ciudadanos has 32 seats.
On Thursday, King Felipe VI met with Rajoy, where the monarch urged the premier to work for the resolution of the political deadlock in Spain.
Rajoy told reporters after the meeting that he had “accepted” the challenge to form a coalition government despite the differences with his political rivals.
If the stalemate continues beyond September, Spain’s 2017 budget could be delayed, which in turn will have a negative impact on the country’s recovery from the economic recession.
Rajoy has not said when he might call the confidence vote, but he hopes Spain would have a government and pass the budget in time for a European Union deadline in October.
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