Twist in Spanish politics. The outgoing premier and leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, has renounced forming a new government and communicated this to King Felipe yesterday evening, who will restart political consultations on 27 January.
Rajoy, despite being his party with the most votes in the last elections, was unable to find the numbers to put together a majority and took a step back. Now it's up to the socialists to try and in the next few days the King will give the new post to the leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sanchez to whom the Podemos and Izquierda Unida formations are ready to give their support. But the three parties of the left do not have a majority: in all they collect 161 votes in Parliament against the 176 necessary.
Sanchez will also try to obtain the consent of the Basque and Catalan nationalists and will try to convince Ciudadanos, a new center formation alternative to Podemos, to at least grant abstention.
But Spanish politics is undoubtedly going through a moment of great uncertainty and Podemos wants to weigh its support for Sanchez not only by asking for the seat of deputy prime minister but by demanding that economic policy change and that the reduction of the public deficit be slower, with great concern for the European Commission fears the contagion effect.
