Spain's king asks Pedro Sanchez to form government
Spanish King Felipe VI on Tuesday ordered caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to attempt to form a government.
Sánchez’s Socialist Party came second in July’s inconclusive national election, in which the center-right Popular Party won the most votes.
Conservative leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo attempted to form a government but last week failed to obtain the majority support of the Spanish parliament needed to become prime minister - garnering 172 votes to 178.
Sánchez, who has governed since 2018, does not control enough seats in the parliament to govern on his own, and is widely expected to attempt to form a minority government with Yolanda Díaz’s far-left Sumar coalition - a successor of the Podemos party with which the Socialists governed during the previous term.
He will likewise seek outside support from regional groups like the Basque Nationalist Party, the Basque separatist party, the Galician Nationalist Bloc, the Catalan separatist Junts group and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).
At: https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-election-king-felipe-vi-ask-prime-minister-pedro-sanchez-form-government/
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez applauds after a governance vote in parliament defeated the neo-Francoist right-wing coalition by 178 votes to 172.
The pragmatic Sánchez moved quickly to secure the support of Catalan, Basque and other regional and separatist groups - signing a preliminary agreement to grant amnesty to those implicated in the failed 2017 Catalan independence referendum.
