Hopes of forming Spanish government rise after party leaders' agreement

Caretaker PM Mariano Rajoy has made concessions to rival Albert Rivera in his attempt to form a government

Hopes of ending eight months of political paralysis in Spain have risen after its acting prime minister acceded to a list of demands from the centrist Ciudadanos party and finally agreed to submit himself to a confidence vote in a bid to avoid the country’s third general election in a year.
 
Spain has been without a government since last December’s poll yielded a hung parliament and a repeat election in June produced a similarly inconclusive result.

Amid growing public and political pressure, the country’s caretaker prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, met the Ciudadanos leader, Albert Rivera, on Thursday morning to hammer out a deal.


Rajoy, who heads the conservative People’s party  which won the most seats in both elections but failed to secure an outright majority in either agreed to sign a six-point Ciudadanos plan intended to tackle corruption and bring about electoral law reform.

He also said he would immediately talk to the speaker of the Spanish congress to set a date for the investiture debate in which he will formally submit himself to parliament for re-election. Early on Thursday evening, the speaker, Ana Pastor, announced that the debate would be held on 30 August.

The deal is unlikely to result in the swift establishment of a government as, even with the support of Ciudadanos, the People’s party will be unable to muster enough votes to win a majority in Spain’s 350-seat congress of deputies.

But Rajoy could still manage to form a minority government if the socialist PSOE party agreed to abstain in a second vote, which is held 48 hours after the first, and which requires only a simple majority. However, the PSOE leader, Pedro Sánchez, has repeatedly ruled out doing anything that would facilitate Rajoy’s return to power.

Speaking after the meeting, Rivera said Rajoy had met the conditions needed to win Ciudadanos’s backing.
“I’ve asked two things of Mr Rajoy: first, that he sign the anti-corruption pact  and he’s agreed to,” said Rivera. “The second thing I asked was that a date for investiture be set today and Mr Rajoy has promised to fix one this afternoon.”

Rajoy said that a “decisive step” had been taken, adding that teams from his party and Rivera’s would begin negotiations on Friday.