MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2023) The leader of Spain's opposition conservative People's Party (PP), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said he would form a new government after the PP came out on top in snap parliamentary elections.
According to the latest official vote count, with over 100% of the ballots processed in the Sunday election, the PP is getting 136 seats in parliament, while the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has won 122 seats.
The left-wing Sumar platform is getting 31 seats, while the far-right VOX party is getting 33 seats.
"I am taking the lead in the dialogue to form a government in accordance with the will of the majority of Spaniards expressed in this Sunday's elections," Feijoo said in an address at the PP headquarters.
However, even with the support of VOX, the PP will not be able to form a new government, since it received 169 votes instead of the 176 required.
The PP's political agenda states that the party will support sanctions against Russia, as well as Ukraine's accession to NATO.
"We will support sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. We will provide military, economic and humanitarian support to the Ukrainian people as long as it is needed. Spain will support Ukraine's ambition to join NATO," the party's official political program read.
In addition, the party advocates the strengthening of NATO and pledges to increase the country's defense spending to the targeted 2% of GDP.
The PP also intends to revitalize Spain's economy, promote equal opportunities, improve the country's education system and strengthen its health care system, as well as promote the digitalization of Spanish society, pursue an environmental transition policy, fight crime, and guarantee the territorial unity of Spain.
The party promised to reduce income tax for people whose annual income is less than 40,000 Euros ($44,700) and to create a mortgage loan program for people under 35 that would guarantee mortgages for up to 95 percent of housing costs. As for agriculture, which Feijoo promised to pay special attention to since he comes from a small village in the autonomous community of Galicia, the PP proposes a new rural development law aimed at bringing government services closer to the country's rural areas. Besides, the party intends to abolish the Democratic Memory Law, passed by the left-wing government in 2022 to counter the legacy of the Francoist dictatorship.
Sanchez called snap elections for July 23 after the PSOE and its smaller coalition partner Podemos suffered setbacks and the PP won regional elections on May 29.
