Spain's king embarks on last ditch effort to form gov't

Source: Associated Press

Spain's king embarks on last ditch effort to form gov't

Ciaran Giles, Associated Press

Updated 1:25 pm, Sunday, April 24, 2016

MADRID (AP) — Spain's king is meeting Monday and Tuesday with the country's political parties following four months of political paralysis in a last-ditch effort to install a government and avoid sending voters back to the ballot box.

The national election last December was historic because it ended the country's traditional two-party system with strong showings for two upstart parties that benefited from voter outrage over soaring unemployment, corruption and austerity cuts. But the outcome brought deadlock because no party won a majority of seats in the 350-seat chamber. The parties have tried and failed to find enough common ground to form a government.

. . .

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party won the Dec. 20 election with 123 seats but lost the majority that had kept it in power since 2011. Rajoy told King Felipe VI in their first post-election meeting he wasn't in a position to be a candidate for premier as he had no support from other parties.

The monarch then invited second-placed Pedro Sanchez of the leading opposition Socialist party, which won 90 seats, to try and form a government. Sanchez struck a deal with centrist newcomer Ciudadanos, which has 40 seats, but was unable to convince the far-left Podemos party, which controls 69 seats, to join him or allow him to govern by abstaining from a confidence vote. Sanchez lost the two parliamentary confidence votes last month and subsequent talks with Podemos produced more animosity than agreement.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Spain-s-king-embarks-on-last-ditch-effort-to-form-7306340.php