Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has declined a proposal from conservatives’ leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo to support his People’s Party for a two-year government term, Feijoo told reporters on Wednesday.
Feijoo’s party emerged with the most seats but fell short of a working majority in a national election last month. He is now attempting to rally support in the lower house to secure the premiership in a vote on Sept. 27. In a meeting earlier on Wednesday, Feijoo asked Sanchez, a Socialist, to back him in exchange for policy agreements.
“Unfortunately, I received a negative response, as far as I understood,” Feijoo informed reporters after the meeting.
Sanchez did not address the media, but Pilar Alegria, spokesperson for his Socialist party, confirmed that they will not support Feijoo’s bid for premiership.
Earlier this month, Sanchez announced his intention to seek the premiership as well.
In a written document presented to Sanchez, the conservative candidate for premiership stated that the two-year government term would be extended if both parties reached an agreement. Legislatures in Spain last four years.
Last week, King Felipe charged Feijoo with the task of forming the government.
A candidate for premiership must secure an absolute majority of at least 176 votes in the 350-member assembly in the first round of voting, or a simple majority with more votes in favor than against in a second round held within two days of the first.
The far-right group Vox and two regional parties have declared that they will support Feijoo, providing him with 172 votes. However, he still needs to persuade a range of regionalist groups to back him or abstain in the second round of voting in order to form a government.
On Aug. 17, Sanchez’s Socialist party managed to secure 178 votes with support from left-wing and regionalist parties to have their candidate elected as speaker.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Tomasz Janowski)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
