Spain’s Socialists refuse to back Rajoy bid to form new gov’t

Sanchez said after Sunday’s election that it’s up to the Popular Party to try to form a government because it got the most votes.

“We say “no” to Rajoy and his policies”, Sanchez told a news conference after meeting with Rajoy.

But the leader of the Socialists, Pedro Sanchez, said Wednesday his party would not support any effort by Rajoy to stay in power.

Shortly before Mr Sanchez went into his meeting with the acting prime minister at Madrid’s Moncloa Palace, Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera called for a pact between the three parties.

Sunday saw the Socialists finish second with 90 seats, while the left wing Podemos won 69 and center-right Citizens 40.

Sanchez is himself in a position to form a “coalition of losers” and take the government from Rajoy, who only won 28.7 percent of the popular vote.

The combined vote of PP and PSOE, which was 84 per cent of the ballot in the 2008 general election, fell to around 50 per cent. Filling this political vacuum are Podemos and Ciudadanos, whose rise has been fuelled by popular anger over political scandals, the fall-out from the deepest economic recession in the country in recent years, and also the growing political clamour for independence in Catalonia.

“We will not support Rajoy or the PP as the ongoing leader of our government”.

If he falls short a second vote will be held 48 hours later with a lower bar to success – he would just need to get more votes for than against him that time around. A failure to back a party leader when Spain’s parliament reconvenes in January will signal fresh elections two months later.

With left-wing parties holding the balance of power in the new parliament, the Socialists could form a government by joining forces with Podemos and other smaller nationalist forces. Podemos, which performed strongly in Catalonia in Sunday’s election, has gone furthest by calling for a referendum on independence, and a new Spanish federation of semi-independent nations, both of which PSOE and Ciudadanos have previously opposed.

Lawmakers have two months from the date of the first vote of confidence to elect a new government.

But he said he would reach out only to parties defending the unity of Spain or its European commitments – appearing to rule out the anti-austerity Podemos and two Catalan separatist groupings that secured 17 parliamentary seats.