MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th January, 2020) Spain's Congress of Deputies on Sunday did not give Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez an absolute majority in the first round of a parliamentary vote to decide if he could become prime minister of a coalition government, with a second vote due to take place on Tuesday.
According to Spanish law, the first vote to approve a government requires an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. On Sunday, Sanchez fell short of the 176 votes required to win the vote, as only 166 lawmakers voted in favor of the PSOE leader's proposed coalition, with 165 being opposed. Eighteen members abstained, while one did not vote.
In the second round of voting, which must take place 48 hours after the first, an absolute majority is not required. Instead, the number of votes in favor must exceed the number of votes against. Therefore, if the situation does not change in the following two days, Sanchez's coalition government will be approved by the smallest of margins.
Sanchez, whose PSOE party won 120 of the Spanish parliament's 350 seats in a November election, has proposed to form a coalition government with the Unidas Podemos party, who won a further 35 seats, and a number of other marginal parties.
The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party offers Sanchez the potential to crucially win a majority in Tuesday's vote. ERC won 13 seats at the November elections and have agreed to abstain in any vote of confidence after a deal was struck.
During the course of 2019, Spain has been in a protracted political crisis. Two snap parliamentary elections were called in April and November of this year, with both elections failing to return a majority. Sanchez has been acting prime minister since the April election.
