Women experts and radical leftists looked set to play a dominant role in Spain's new coalition government as Pedro Sanchez on Friday named a senior global trade expert as his top diplomat.
Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez won the narrowest of victories in Parliament on Tuesday to take power for a second term in Spain with the backing of the anti-austerity party Podemos and a Catalan separatist group.
Accusations of hypocrisy have rained down on the couple that heads Spain's far-left Podemos party for buying a 600,000-Euro luxury home with a swimming pool after previously condemning such extravagance. The purchase caused unease among the rank and file of Podemos, which was formed in 2014 to represent the people against the caste -- as it called the country's political and business elites -- and there are fears it could cost the party at the ballot box.
The conservative Popular Party of Mariano Rajoy, Spain's caretaker prime minister, won the most votes in Spain’s repeat national elections on Sunday, while the Socialists held off a challenge from the Podemos Party to remain the largest left-wing formation. The fragmented result, however, did not settle who will form the country’s next government.
Spain is likely to repeat its indecisive election of December when it returns to the polls next weekend, according to survey results from three major newspapers, signaling that the country‘s political limbo is set to linger.
Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos and its allies could leapfrog the Socialists in this month's repeat general election to become the country's main opposition, three polls released over the weekend.
Spain's King Felipe VI signed the decree dissolving parliament following December's inconclusive general election. As no political parties were able to coalesce their support into a coalition government in time for the deadline, new elections will be held on June 26.
Spain's Socialist party ruled out forming a new government with any party that supported a referendum on independence in Catalonia, a stand that prolongs political uncertainty after this month's inconclusive national election.
Spain is heading for a period of difficult coalition-building after Sunday’s elections in which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservatives came first, but were far short of a majority and with no obvious coalition partner after the centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens) did worse than expected, finishing fourth.
The latest surveys on the Spanish legislative elections to be held next Sunday, predict a victory for the ruling center-right People's Party, or PP, but without an absolute majority, so the party will have to form a coalition to establish a government.