Spanish conservative leader Mariano Rajoy won a parliamentary vote to be prime minister yesterday, ending 10 months of political gridlock that had left the country without a fully-functioning government.
Rajoy’s centre-right People’s Party is set to form a minority government, after gaining support from the smaller Ciudadanos (“Citizens”) party and the tacit backing of many Socialist lawmakers who abstained in the confidence vote.
Rajoy needed to win a simple majority in parliament to cement his return to power.
He got 170 “yes” votes while 111 lawmakers voted against him and 68 legislators abstained.
Later, Rajoy said he would name his new cabinet on Thursday.
“I will announce the government on Thursday afternoon and they will be sworn in on Friday. I have already spoken with His Majesty the King (Felipe),” he told reporters after the vote.
Yesterday’s vote drew a line under two inconclusive elections and fruitless attempts at coalition-building between bickering parties, but it won’t guarantee political instability.
After winning a 2011 election, Rajoy slashed public spending to tackle rising debt as Spain endured a severe recession.
Unemployment soared to 27% and the country’s banks needed a €41bn ($45bn) European bailout.
Voters punished Rajoy’s People’s Party (PP) even as the economy later recovered, stripping it of its absolute majority.
But the PP still won the most votes in elections last December and in June, and Rajoy resisted calls from rival parties to step aside and let another PP leader try and form a coalition.
He will now have to negotiate with his political opponents to pass any legislation, including the budget, given his PP has only 137 seats in the 350-seat parliament.
“This is going to require an effort from everyone, on our part too, in terms of trying to pass legislative initiatives,” senior PP lawmaker Rafael Hernando said in a radio interview earlier yesterday.
Rajoy struck a conciliatory tone this week, offering to work with opponents on issues like pension and education reform, and opening the door to further dialogue with Catalonia, a northeastern region in the grip of a strong independence drive.
But his political foes are sceptical he can change his style.
Thousands of demonstrators were expected to march yesterday in protest against a new Rajoy government in Madrid.
The Socialists, the second largest force in parliament, are deeply divided over the party’s decision to allow Rajoy to govern.
Former Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, ousted in early October over his refusal to enable a Rajoy government, quit his seat in parliament rather than abstain in yesterday’s vote (see accompanying report).
Rajoy, who may need to pass fresh spending cuts to meet deficit targets next year, will be able to count on support on some issues from the liberal Ciudadanos or “Citizens” party, which came fourth in June’s elections.
However others, including the Socialists and anti-austerity Podemos (“We Can”), have said they will fight Rajoy’s policies and will not approve his budgets.
Antonio Barroso, a senior analyst at risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence, said that Rajoy would head a minority government with the weakest parliamentary support since democracy was restored in Spain after General Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.
“It is unlikely that the new government will last four years,” he said in a note.