Spanish king, politicians discuss new government

Yesterday Spain’s King Felipe VI began a week of meetings with party leaders in a bid to break a potentially damaging impasse over the formation of a new government following inconclusive elections.
Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has headed a caretaker government with reduced powers since a December 20 general election produced a hung parliament in which a ruling majority cannot easily be formed.
Under Spain’s constitutional monarchy the king must now meet with the leaders of all parties that won representation in parliament before nominating one of them to try to form a new government.
The nominated party leader must then win a parliament vote of confidence to take office.
If there is still a deadlock two months after the first vote, the monarch must call new elections.
Felipe, who took the throne when his father Juan Carlos abdicated in June 2014, began the talks yesterday by meeting with the leaders of small regional parties.
The consultations are due to end on Friday when he meets with Rajoy, whose conservative Popular Party (PP) won the most seats but fell far short of an absolute majority in the 350-seat parliament.
Rajoy has called for a “grand coalition” of the PP, which has 123 seats, his traditional Socialist rivals who came in second place winning 90 seats and new centre-right party Ciudadanos which took 40 seats.
The Socialists instead are seeking a left-wing alliance that includes new anti-austerity party Podemos, which won 69 seats.
Rajoy said yesterday that he hoped a new government is formed “as soon as possible”, warning that political uncertainty threatens to derail the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.
“It is obvious that uncertainty has consequences. This is why it is so important that we concentrate on what matters,” he said during an interview with Spanish public radio.
The majority of Spanish voters, 61%, oppose holding fresh elections to resolve the political impasse, a poll published in daily newspaper El Pais showed.
The survey also showed that if new elections were held the results would be similar to the December vote and the deadlock would remain, although Podemos would edge out the Socialists from second place.
As such, European Union officials and Spanish business figures have pressed party leaders to move quickly to form a new government.
“I hope that Spain will get a stable government as quickly as possible given that it is a member of the eurozone,” European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said last Friday.
The PP hopes to hold a first vote of confidence during the last week of January or the first week of February.
“From the point of view of companies, what matters to us is that there is a solid, strong government formed by those who will face up to economic difficulties,” the head of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), Juan Rosell, told AFP.
Rajoy, who passed several reforms including a 2012 labour market shake-up that reduced firing costs, has kept quiet regarding which policy areas he would be willing to make compromises on to pact with other parties.
“The one who puts his cards on the table before starting a negotiation is a poor negotiator,” he said.
The king traditionally has invited the winner of the most seats to form a government but he can opt for other leaders if it appears that they are better positioned to provide a stable cabinet.
That has happened at the regional level in Spain but never following a general election.

Spaniards oppose new elections, Podemos rises to second place: survey
A majority of Spanish voters oppose holding fresh polls to resolve a political impasse caused by an inconclusive general election last month and want parties to form a coalition government instead, a survey showed on Sunday.
If new elections were held the results would be similar to the December vote and the deadlock would remain, although new anti-austerity party Podemos would edge out the Socialists from second place, according to the poll published in top-selling daily newspaper El Pais.
The conservative Popular Party (PP) of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy won 123 of the parliament’s 350 seats in a December 20 general election, winning the most seats but falling short of an absolute majority.
The Socialists came second with 90 seats.
Two new parties, Podemos and the centre-right Ciudadanos, won a combined 109 seats, ending decades of two-party dominance by the Popular Party and the Socialists and giving Spain a hung parliament in which a ruling majority cannot easily be formed.
Since the election, Rajoy has met separately with leaders of the three rival parties and won implicit support only from Ciudadanos.
Only 33% of voters back a new election to end the deadlock while 61% would prefer to see an agreement between the parties, according to the Metroscopia poll published in El Pais.
The Popular Party would once again capture the most votes if a fresh election were held, with their support at 29% according to the poll.
The party won 28.7% of the vote in last month’s general election.
Podemos, a close ally of Greece’s ruling Syriza which has made fighting corruption and economic inequality the focus of its platform, would come in second place with 22.5% support, up from 20.7% in the election.
The Socialists would come in third as their support would fall to 21.1% from 22% during the election while Ciudadanos would once again come in fourth with 16.6% support, up from 13.9% in the general election.
The telephone poll of 1,200 eligible voters was carried out January 12-14. It has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.