With 170 votes in favor out of 349, 111 against and 68 abstentions, the Spanish Congress of Deputies voted its confidence in the new Rajoy government, leader of the Popular Party, ten months after the last general elections.
The abstention of the socialists of the Psoe was decisive, who now become the needle in the balance of Spanish politics but who had to suffer the rebellion of 15 of their 84 parliamentarians, in addition to the resignation as deputy of the former secretary Pedro Sanchez, whose line of rigid opposition cost the inaction of the socialists after repeated electoral defeats, until the pragmatic line of the Andalusian Susana Diaz, inspired by former premier Felipe Gonzales, took hold in the Psoe.
“There's a lot of work to do” was Prime Minister Rajoy's comment after the investiture.
