Rivera Proposes National Pact for Spain to Face Catalan Threat

Dec 23 Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy met Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday, kicking off what promise to be tough and complex negotiations between a handful of senior politicians on forming a viable government.

The election results are unprecedented, ending the bipartisan politics that have ruled the country since its return to democracy. Both lost significant ground to the relatively new liberal Ciudadanos and left-wing Podemos parties.

That means if Ciudadanos and the Socialists were to abstain from voting in the second vote Rajoy would be able to get re-elected.

“We have to open a new political period in Spain, led by change, by progress and dialogue”, said Sanchez, insisting that the PSOE “is not going to support the continuity of either Mariano Rajoy or the People’s Party(PP) at the head of the Spanish government”.

If no congressional consensus is reached on a new prime minister, Spain could face new elections in early 2016.

But he added that he would do everything he could to avoid fresh elections and that he would back Rajoy on issues such as terrorism or Spanish unity against the risk of seeing the northeastern region of Catalonia declaring independence.

The move comes on the heels of a narrow reelection for Rajoy’s Popular Party in Spain’s Sunday election.

The results of the elections on Sunday signalled the death of the two-party system in Spain, with the PP and the Socialists losing support following the rise of two fringe parties, the far-left Podemos and the centrist Ciudadanos.

Business-friendly Ciudadanos has said it would abstain in a parliamentary vote, allowing the PP to govern, but that would not be enough for the PP.

If there is still deadlock after two months, King Felipe VI calls a new election.

Party leader Sánchez, under pressure because of the 1.5 million voters who have abandoned the Socialists since 2011, was the only one of the main party leaders who did not speak to media on Monday. Podemos’s leader, Pablo Iglesias, said in column for Huffington Post on Wednesday that the Socialists and Ciudadanos should join Podemos in backing an independent candidate to oust Rajoy.

Spain entered a governing void, facing weeks or months of uncertainty over what political party or parties will lead the country following a national election that fragmented the status quo.