KING Felipe has not nominated any candidate to form a government following his final round of meetings with party leaders yesterday (Tuesday) and Monday, which means unless enough groups strike a last-minute deal between now and Sunday night, a second general election is guaranteed.
PSOE (socialists) leader Pedro Sánchez (pictured right), formerly nominated by King Felipe VI (pictured left) but having failed to get Ciudadanos and Podemos to agree to work together, said: “I neither can, nor should, undergo another attempt at becoming invested as president.”
Acting president Mariano Rajoy, of the right-wing PP, said: “Luckily for Spain, a left-wing government has failed to take over the reins.”
Leftist independents Podemos, led by Pablo Iglesias, urged Sánchez to create a 'progress-driven coalition', but with the party's own 69 seats and the PSOE's 90, the total of 159 falls far short of a majority of 176 and the remaining groups would not vote in their favour.
Valencia-based left-wing party Compromís put forward the idea of a deal with Podemos and the PSOE, and Sánchez said he agreed with 27 points on the list but that three of the 30 'would need discussion and amendment'.
They included a minimum living income for everyone, measures to avoid home repossession, more resources for the elderly and disabled who need home care, measures against domestic violence, a 'multi-dimensional and complete' programme to wipe out poverty, a youth employment plan to stop the 'brain drain' of highly-qualified young adults forced to leave the country to find work, a reform of transparency laws, scrapping the so-called 'gagging law' which imposes five- or six-figure fines for unauthorised public demonstrations or photographing police officers, improving transparency in public works contracts, setting up an anti-corruption office and giving legal protection to whistleblowers, reforming the electoral system, scrapping top politicians' and bankers' revolving door employment, and removing politics from the running of the courts.
Restructuring the State deficit to prioritise social spending, reforming the education law and axing the restrictive labour reforms of 2010 and 2012, promoting equality in leading institutions, making healthcare publicly-run and available to everyone once again, setting up a new equality law for transsexual and LGB residents, climate change and energy laws, re-industrialising the economy, a fiscal reform to render tax contributions 'fairer', investing in better rail, sea, land and air links with Europe, and giving 'quality' farming a boost are also listed.
With Compromís being a Valencia-based party, high on the list was finance for the 17 autonomous regions in Spain, given that the Comunidad Valenciana has long suffered from an unfairly-low share of the pot.
Concerning Catalunya's drive for independence – although without mentioning this as such – Compromís proposes resolving the 'territorial crises' of the State 'from a democratic perspective' and 'pushing ahead with a federal model', whilst focusing on 'integration and democracy' within the European Union based upon a 'social, fair and empathic model' and 'more equitable wealth and resources distribution' between member States.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com