Historic first as Sanchez loses second vote of confidence

PSOE Leader Pedro Sanchez has yet again been thwarted in his attempt to topple Mariano Rajoy from his position as prime minster. On Friday March 4 Sanchez failed to win the vote of confidence of the Spanish parliament for the second time in just a week, meaning it will now be back to the drawing board for the various parties to see if they can reach an agreement in the next two months. If not, parliament will be dissolved and another national election will take place, most likely on June 26.

As on Wednesday (March 2), when Sanchez lost a first vote, PP, Podemos, and five smaller parties all voted against Sanchez. Sanchez tried desperately until the very last minute to convince Podemos frontman Pablo Iglesisas to take a chance on his “government of change”, but Iglesias was firm in his petition for a leftist alliance. In the end, Sanchez only managed to secure the votes of 131 of the 350 members of the Spanish parliament.

Sanchez’s failure marks the first time a candidate has lost both votes of confidence since Spain became a democracy in the mid-1970s following the death of General Francisco Franco.