Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative Popular Party, has been given the first shot at forming a new Spanish government.
Spain’s king, Felipe VI, on Tuesday decided that Feijóo, whose party won the most votes in last month’s inconclusive national election, should try and form a coalition.
But Feijóo’s efforts will surely be doomed. The PP failed to secure the number of seats in parliament needed to govern, and even with the backing of the far-right Vox party, Feijóo won’t be able to overcome the opposition of a majority of Spain’s MPs.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is in a better position to remain in post. Sánchez and his left-wing allies control 171 of the 350 seats in the parliament, which means that in order to form a government he would need to persuade several MPs belonging to the Catalan separatist Junts party to vote for him.
However, last week Sánchez received a boost when Junts gave its votes to Francina Armengol, the Socialist candidate for the presidency of the parliament’s bureau, the powerful body which approves the creation of parliamentary groups, authorizes investigative commissions and ultimately determines which bills are taken up by MPs.
SPAIN NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
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