Spain: the leader of the right will try to be invested Prime Minister

August 22, 2023

Spain’s King Felipe VI appointed right-wing leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Tuesday to try to be sworn in as Prime Minister by deputies, the Assembly president announced, although he does not have the required majority. for the moment.

The king communicated “his decision to propose Mr. Alberto Núñez Feijóo”, leader of the People’s Party (PP, right), “as a candidate for the presidency of the government”, declared during a press conference the socialist Francina Armengol, new President of the Congress of Deputies renewed in the elections of July 23.

The King’s decision was Cornelian and so far very uncertain because neither Mr. Feijóo nor the outgoing Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, can claim the required majority due to the results of the July 23 early elections.

“The People’s Party was the political group that obtained the largest number of seats” in parliament, justified the Royal Palace in a press release, recalling that this “practice” has become a “custom” under the current constitution . Spanish.

Ms. Armengol said she would contact Mr. Feijóo in the coming hours to set a date for the nomination debate.

“I thank his majesty the king for his decision (…) We will give a voice to the more than 11 million citizens who want change”, welcomed Mr. Feijóo on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

At the end of their respective talks with the king on Tuesday, MM. Sánchez and Feijóo, leader of the People’s Party (PP, right), had both reiterated that they were ready to submit to a vote of investiture if the choice of the sovereign fell on them.

In the first round, an absolute majority of 176 votes (out of a total of 350 deputies) is required, while a simple majority is sufficient in the second round.

If the nomination vote fails, a two-month countdown will be triggered to try to find another majority, failing which, legislative elections will be called again.

Mr. Feijóo claims the right to submit to a nomination vote because the PP won the most seats.

But he can only have a maximum of 172 votes: those of the 137 deputies of the PP, plus the 33 of Vox and the deputies of two small regional parties.

Based on this observation, Mr. Sánchez considers that Mr. Feijóo has no chance and has long considered that appointing him to appear before the deputies was a waste of time.

However, he said on Tuesday, after his audience with the king, that he would have no objection if Felipe VI nominated Mr Feijóo.

“Whatever decision the head of state takes, it will have the support of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party,” he told a press conference ahead of the announcement of the king’s decision, while repeating that a vote of investiture of the leader of the PP would be “a failure”.

“There is no other alternative than a government of progress”, he said, that is to say a renewal of the outgoing coalition between the socialists and the radical left.

He acknowledged that Mr Feijóo had an assured total of 172 votes, but, he said, “it seems obvious that we have a higher ceiling”.

He was referring to the fact that Ms. Armengol was elected last Thursday as President of Congress in the first round with 178 votes thanks to the votes of the deputies of the two Catalan independence parties, ERC and especially Junts per Catalunya (JxCat).

But at present, this majority does not exist and Mr. Sánchez can only count on 164 votes.

ERC and especially Junts have, indeed, underlined last week that a vote of nomination would require new negotiations for which they have set the bar very high.

Their two main demands are for a referendum on self-determination and an amnesty for all those charged after Catalonia’s failed 2017 secession attempt that forced Mr Puigdemont to flee to Belgium to escape Spanish justice.

Mr. Feijóo claimed to be “just four votes away from an absolute majority”, while Mr. Sánchez, he said, “is within reach of an amnesty” and “an independence referendum”. .