Spain is set to install its first fully functioning government in 10
months on Saturday when parliament is expected to grudgingly grant conservative
leader Mariano Rajoy a
second term as prime minister.
The vote will draw a line under two inconclusive elections and fruitless
attempts at coalition-building between bickering parties, but it won't
guarantee political instability. Rajoy's weak minority government will struggle
to pass legislation.
The opposition Socialists have instructed their lawmakers to abstain in a
parliamentary confidence vote set for 7.45 p.m. (1745 GMT), allowing Rajoy,
caretaker prime minister since December, to be confirmed as leader of a proper
administration.
The result will be a triumph for the 61-year-old Rajoy, who is renowned
as a political survivor.
After winning a 2011 election, Rajoy slashed public spending to tackle
rising debt as Spain endured a severe recession. Unemployment soared to 27
percent and the country's banks needed a 41 billion euro ($45 billion) 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 on Saturday.
STRUGGLE WITH THE OPPOSITION
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 are expected to march in protest against a new Rajoy
government in Madrid on Saturday.
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, said on Saturday he would quit his seat
in parliament rather than abstain in Saturday's vote. He suggested he could try
and run for the party leadership again in upcoming primaries.
"I completely disagree with the decision to enable Mariano Rajoy to
govern," a tearful Sanchez told a news conference.
"From Monday onwards I'm going to get into my car and go all over
Spain to listen to those that are not being listened to."
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 elections.
But 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 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.
(Additional reporting by Sarah White and Maria Vega Paul, Editing by Tom
Heneghan and Mark Bendeich)
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