Spain\u2019s\u00a0parliament voted to make Pedro\u00a0Sanchez\u00a0prime minister for another term on Thursday, ending a protracted deadlock after an inconclusive general election in July. <\/p>\n
His Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE) reached\u00a0separate deals\u00a0with a number of regional parties to earn their backing, including a\u00a0contentious bill on amnesty\u00a0for Catalan separatists that has sparked protests across Spain. <\/p>\n
Sanchez\u00a0had 179 votes in favor and 171 against, with no abstentions. <\/p>\n
His confirmation as premier ends months of uncertainty. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, a candidate with the conservative People\u2019s Party (PP), won the most seats but failed to secure enough support from other parties in his own bid to lead the country. <\/p>\n
It also represents a remarkable turnaround for\u00a0Sanchez, who six months ago felt compelled to call a snap election after his party performed poorly in regional elections. Polls suggested he would be voted out of government but his party staged a late rally and managed to contain a surge from the PP. <\/p>\n
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated\u00a0Sanchez\u00a0on social media platform X. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is good that we can continue to work side by side,\u201d Scholz said. \u201cWe see many challenges in the world from a very similar perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working to address important challenges faced by the EU while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also sent his congratulations <\/p>\n
The amnesty bill, which was registered in parliament on Monday, has angered many Spaniards. It proposes exculpating politicians and activists who took part in an attempt to separate Catalonia from Spain that reached its apex in 2017. <\/p>\n
As the vote was completed, some of the 400 protesters outside parliament shook barricades erected by police and shouted their dissent. <\/p>\n
Javier, 25, of the youth group Revuelta linked to Vox, said protests would continue outside PSOE headquarters in Madrid on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose PP won the most seats in the July vote, walked across the chamber to shake\u00a0Sanchez\u2019s hand as leftist lawmakers applauded and cheered, while Vox party leader Santiago Abascal walked out. <\/p>\n
Feijoo said he told\u00a0Sanchez\u00a0he was making a mistake for which he was responsible. <\/p>\n
The European People\u2019s Party (EPP) said on Thursday that the European Parliament had approved its request for a debate next week on whether the amnesty threatens judicial independence in Spain. <\/p>\n
Esteban Gonzalez Pons, vice secretary of the PP, said the fact that\u00a0Spain\u2019s\u00a0rule of law would be debated was a \u201chumiliation for\u00a0Spain\u2019s\u00a0prestige.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sanchez\u00a0will continue to depend on regional parties to pass key legislation, which will require \u201ccontinuous negotiation and strict adherence to the agreements, especially in the case of the Catalan separatists,\u201d Thinking Heads, a Madrid-based think tank, said in a report. <\/p>\n
While the Socialists say the deals include a guarantee of \u201cstability\u201d in the legislature, there is no formal agreement to support the budget. It will be negotiated \u201cin good faith,\u201d according to a senior Socialist source. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf progress is not made, we will not endorse any initiative put forward by your government,\u201d Junts parliamentary spokesperson Miriam Nogueras warned on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Feijoo described\u00a0Sanchez\u00a0as being \u201csubject to a monthly contract with separatists\u201d to be able to govern. <\/p>\n
Sanchez\u00a0has pledged to extend measures to\u00a0help Spaniards with the cost of living\u00a0by making public transport free for the unemployed and young people as well as providing mortgage relief for some home owners. <\/p>\n
Sanchez\u2019s attention will now turn to naming a new cabinet. Key among his considerations will be whether to retain Nadia Calvino as his economy minister since she is also the frontrunner to be named as the next head of the European Investment Bank. <\/p>\n\n
Spain\u2019s\u00a0parliament voted to make Pedro\u00a0Sanchez\u00a0prime minister for another term on Thursday, ending a protracted deadlock after an inconclusive general election in July. His Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE) reached\u00a0separate deals\u00a0with a number of regional parties to earn their backing, including a\u00a0contentious bill on amnesty\u00a0for Catalan separatists that has sparked protests across Spain. Sanchez\u00a0had 179 votes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}