Pedro Sanchez re-elected president

NEARLY 18 weeks after the snap general election of July 23, the Spanish government  has a president.

The makeup of that government has yet to be announced but Pedro Sanchez from the PSOE party who now begins his fourth presidential term, finally obtained 179 votes from seven different parties.

This was the first time since Mariano Rajoy in 2011 that a presidential candidate has been elected with an overall majority instead of having to hold a second vote with hopes of obtaining a simple majority with more Yes than No votes.

With the exception of Sumar – a coalition of parties further to the Left than the socialist PSOE – all Sanchez’s votes came from Spain’s nationalist parties in Cataluña, the Basque Region, Galicia and the Canary Islands.

These included the controversial seven votes from MPs belonging to the Junts per Catalunya separatist party which agreed to back Sanchez in return for an amnesty for all those involved in a 2017 independence bid.

After Speaker Francina Armengold announced the results of the traditional voice votes, Sanchez received a three-minute ovation from the socialist benches and congratulations from vice-presidents Nadia Calviño, Yolanda Diaz and Teresa Ribera.

Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, leader of the Partido Popular, which was the most-voted party on July 23, now becomes leader of the opposition after failing to obtain sufficient votes in own investiture bid in September.

Greeting Sanchez immediately after the vote, Feijoo shook his hand but added, “This is a mistake”, having opposed from the outset the amnesty and concessions made to the Catalan separatists.