Spain: PM Rajoy wins vote to govern

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won a parliamentary confidence vote Saturday night, officially putting an end to more than 10 months of political deadlock in Spain.

Rajoy and his conservative Popular Party will now head a minority government in Spain’s parliament. He won the investiture by a vote of 170-111, with the abstention of 68 Socialists.

Spain has had a caretaker government for 315 days and two inconclusive elections, which saw the vote split for the first time between four main parties instead of the traditional two.

But at the last minute and after much in-fighting, the Popular Party’s traditional rivals, the Socialists, decided to abstain in Saturday’s vote to make way for a Rajoy government.

Spain had until next Monday, Oct. 31 to form a government or else third elections would have been automatically triggered for December.

Unhappy leftists

Although this means Spain will finally have a government, the decision upset much of Spain’s left.

Risking anything from fines to expulsion from the party, 15 Socialist MPs disobeyed party discipline and voted against Rajoy.

Pedro Sanchez, the former Socialist leader, also resigned his position as an MP earlier Saturday, saying he could not abstain in favor of a Rajoy government.

Some 6,000-10,000 protesters took to the streets in Madrid for a peaceful protest of the new government, according to estimates from the police and organizers.

Protesters said that the Rajoy government is illegitimate, as the Socialists campaigned on a “no vote” and that this government does not represent them – many from the far-left Podemos Party or disaffected Socialists.

“We’d prefer third, fourth, and fifth elections before letting these thieves continue to govern. They’ve been robbing us for years. Before, there was a middle class, and now we can’t make it to the end of the month,” Sonia Barrigoz from Madrid told Anadolu Agency at the protest, referring to the various corruption scandals that have involved the Popular Party.

Rajoy told local media he will announce his cabinet on Thursday and will be sworn in Friday.