Spain parliament to vote on Rajoy
Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is to make another effort to win a parliamentary confidence vote to win a second term in office and form a new government to end the 8-month political deadlock festering the country.
The attempt to win a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday at about 8:00 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) is Rajoy's second effort in that regard this week.
In his first attempt on Wednesday, Rajoy secured the backing of 170 representatives, falling six short of the 176 votes needed for an absolute majority in the 350-seat assembly.
The leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP) has failed to win support from the opposition so far and all efforts to form a coalition government have been to no avail.
The two left-leaning parties, the Socialists and Unidos Podemos ("Together We Can"), are strongly opposed to Rajoy leading the government.
Rajoy’s PP has 137 parliamentary seats and the Liberal Ciudadanos has 32 seats. The Socialists party has 85, and the Unidos Podemos coalition led by anti-austerity party Podemos has 71 seats.
Without the backing or at least an abstention from the Socialists or Podemos, it would be impossible for Rajoy to secure a majority for a second term in office.
Analysts say after two inconclusive elections in December and then in June, the stand-off between Spain's rival parties remains in full force and Friday's attempt to win the support of leftist parliamentarians is improbable due to huge differences in the sides’ core values.
If, as expected, Rajoy loses the confidence vote on Friday, he and other candidates would have until October 31 to try and form a government before a third election is automatically called. The next ballot could fall on Christmas Day.
The eight-month political deadlock is already threatening Spain's economic recovery attributed to Rajoy, who came to power in 2011 and is credited with steering Spain back from the brink of economic meltdown with harsh doses of austerity.
The country is also plagued by a high unemployment rate, tarnishing the image of the PP, already mired by a corruption scandal.
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