Alberto Núñez Feijóo has begun a long and hazardous journey towards his investiture session. These days, the candidate for the presidency of the Government proposed by Felipe VI is trying to squeeze the maximum of the 35-day margin granted to him by the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, in order to obtain the necessary support from the Lower House.
During the round of consultations, both the PP president and Pedro Sánchez conveyed to the King their willingness to submit to the confidence of Congress. On August 22, Don Felipe finally proposed Feijóo, thus following the “custom” of choosing the candidate with the most votes for the investiture.
The next day, Armengol agreed with the PP leader to give him time to negotiate with other formations. The 35-day margin offered also prevents a hypothetical electoral repetition from falling in the middle of Christmas. In the event that Feijóo and Sánchez fail in their aspirations to lead the next government, the new general elections would be held on January 14, 2024.
In this way, the roadmap marks Feijóo’s investiture session for September 26 and 27, the second date being when the first vote takes place. In the case of not achieving an absolute majority, a second vote will be held on Friday the 29th, where the PP candidate would do better with more yeses than noes.
Everything indicates that Alberto Núñez Feijóo will not be sworn in as president in either of the two votes. He appears with 172 votes in hand (the sum of PP, Vox, UPN and Canary Coalition), so he is four short of having a majority in the first vote. For now, the proposed candidate is trying to advance negotiations with other parties with representation in Congress.
If the PP candidate is defeated in the investiture session, the King will initiate a second round of consultations, from which Pedro Sánchez will presumably emerge as a candidate for the presidency of the Government.
At this point in the game there will already be a deadline for Sánchez to be sworn in as president. As established in section 5 of article 99 of the Constitution, “if after the period of two months, from the first investiture vote [September 27], no candidate has obtained the confidence of Congress, the King will dissolve both Chambers and will call new elections with the endorsement of the President of Congress”. That date marked in red is November 27.
