Acting Spanish government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa said that Spain’s new parliament will likely vote at the beginning of July on who will become prime minister.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists, the PSOE, won a national election at the end of April but fell short of an overall majority, and the acting PM needs support from other parties to get reinstated. Sánchez might need backing from Catalan nationalists in Congress to build a majority of 176 seats.
Sanchez is for now acting prime minister and is expected to stay in the job, but will need to seek partners to be voted in what is a very fragmented parliament.
In the meantime following the Catalan parliament’s refusal to appoint Miquel Iceta, the leader of the Catalan Socialists (PSC), as a senator on Thursday, the acting government of Pedro Sánchez has come up with a new candidate to replace him.
Sánchez is now nominating another native of Catalonia, Manuel Cruz, who is also a member of the PSC. The idea is to get him into the Senate, then make him speaker of the upper house. The new vote at the Catalan parliament to confirm his senatorial position will take place on May 21.
For speaker of Congress, Sánchez is proposing Meritxell Batet, who is also Catalan. The choices are meant to symbolize the acting PM’s desire for renewed dialogue to overcome the territorial crisis in the northeastern region.
Via Reuters/ El Pais
