Presidential debate: Rajoy falls at first hurdle with 170 votes in favour and 180 against
Thursday, September 1, 2016 @ 5:47 PM
ACTING president Mariano Rajoy, of the right-wing PP party, has failed in his attempt to be invested as Spain's leader in the first round of the in-house elections which followed a day of lively debate and recriminations.
Thanks to a 150-point, 44-page agreement centre-right Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera pushed him into signing, completely rehashing all the PP's policies to date in terms of the economy, employment, education, healthcare and social services and including six 'non-negotiable' requisites to combat corruption and multi-million tax evasion, Rajoy was able to secure the unanimous 'yes' votes from all 32 of Ciudadanos' MPs.
The Canarian Coalition's one MP voted in favour since, according to its spokeswoman Ana Oramas, 'Spain and the Canary Islands cannot wait any longer'.
With the PP's own 137 MPs, this gave 170 votes in Rajoy's favour, but out of the 350 members of Parliament, he needed 176 to give him an outright majority.
And his direct rival, the PSOE (socialists), led by Pedro Sánchez, has stood firm in its 'no' to a party whose social and economic policies over the last five years have been totally against all that the PSOE represents.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com