(Reuters) — King Felipe of Spain on Tuesday (October 25) held a new round of talks with political leaders in an attempt to appoint a candidate to form a government after 10 months of political deadlock following the inconclusive results of two general elections in a year.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy who stayed in office as a caretaker without full powers is now finally set to form a full-fledged minority conservative government by next weekend after his Socialist opponents agreed on Sunday (October 23) not to block his investiture by abstaining in a confidence vote.
The leader of anti-austerity party Podemos who met the king on Tuesday morning said the Socialist’s move to allow Rajoy back in office has place him in the position of opposition leader by default.
“Our new role as the opposition is somehow the result of being pushed to that position. I think that this triple alliance makes it very difficult for Ciudadanos and the Socialist Party to credibly tell people that they are the opposition to the government they have boosted. I think we will be the opposition because we have been placed in that position by the rest of political actors,” Iglesias said at a news conference after the Spanish monarch.
Iglesias was preceded at the King’s palace by Albert Rivera, the leader of centrist Ciudadanos, who is preparing to ratify Rajoy as Spain’s prime minister.
“We have to open a new political stage and end that grey deadlock stage. We need to end that stage ‘no, no and no’ stage in order to open a stage of opportunities. A new stage in which Spaniards can be reconciled with their institutions, with politics and with their parliament,” he said after meeting the King.
Rajoy is expected to accept the King’s appointment to form a government on Tuesday afternoon. He will then have to go through two rounds of votes in Parliament before being sworn in as Prime Minister.
In order to win the confidence vote, he must be approved by an absolute majority in the first parliamentary vote but, failing that, a simple majority in the second round will be enough to allow the People’s Party to lead the new government.
The deadline to form a new government and avoid a third general election is October 31.
