Mariano Rajoy was voted in as Spain’s new Prime Minister at the second round of a congressional vote on Saturday night.
Rajoy, from the Popular Party (PP), won a second term in office after leading a caretaker government for 10 months in the wake of inconclusive elections that broke the two-party system, introducing unprecedented fragmentation in the lower house.
As expected, the PP nominee won 170 favourable votes from his own party, from the reform group Ciudadanos and from the regional Canaries Coalition.
However, his victory was only made possible by the fact that 68 Socialist Party (PSOE) deputies abstained, following their own party’s instructions. Even so, 15 Socialist congress members entered a conscience vote against Rajoy, evidencing the deep fracture within the PSOE.
In all, 111 deputies voted against Rajoy in the 350-seat chamber.
Rajoy’s minority government will have to reach vote-by-vote agreements in a hostile chamber, a fact that the new PM acknowledged right after the vote.
“A LOT OF WORK AHEAD”
“I think there is still a lot of work ahead of us,” said Rajoy in his first statements. “We will try to seek agreement and understanding with everyone.”
But then he issued a warning to other members in Congress who have pledged to fight his tenure every step of the way.
“I think we are a great nation and a great country, and I hope this will not simply be an investiture session, but that we will be able to do what other European countries with no majorities do: try to govern and work together.”
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