Spain's opposition leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the People's Party, has seen his second attempt to secure the prime ministership thwarted by a four-vote margin in parliament. This result clears a path for the Socialist Party's Pedro Sanchez to potentially reclaim a new tenure as Spain's Prime Minister.
Feijoo, the leader of the centrist People's Party, obtained 172 endorsements and faced 177 rejections in the parliamentary vote held on Friday, a close resemblance of a prior result from Wednesday. Under Spain's electoral regulations, a prime ministerial candidate undertakes two levels of voting. The first necessitates an outright majority, while the second round only mandates more approvals than disapprovals.
This loss for Feijoo underscores the difficulty his party experiences in steering through Spain's politically polarized landscape, which leans more towards regional loyalties and local concerns over ideological beliefs. Such factionalism turned the slim margin into an insuperable hurdle for Feijoo, who spent the past two months since winning a national election striving for the requisite endorsements.
The most apparent ally for Feijoo and the People’s Party, Spain's largest, is the far-right Vox group. Vox has gained prominence nationally primarily due to its resistance to regional nationalist movements — exactly the support Feijoo needed. Vox holds the position of the third-largest party in Parliament with 33 seats.
The baton now passes to Sanchez, who has the difficult task of brokering agreements with numerous parties having varied agendas in order to win the election. This job, however, seems simpler for Sanchez compared to Feijoo.
Sanchez, who could take his oath for a third tenure as soon as next month, still has to navigate complex discussions to get the hardline Catalan pro-separatist party Junts to side with him. Junts demands an amnesty for hundreds implicated in a botched secession attempt in 2017 as a trade-off for its seven votes.
Although Sanchez has not openly agreed to a broad pardon, he has voiced his inclination towards finding a political resolution to an enduring territorial dispute that continues to fragment the country. Feijoo, however, denounced the potential deal that Sanchez could strike with separatists as being unlawful and maintains he would never embrace such a pact.
Feijoo stated earlier in the week, "I have within my grasp the votes to be the Prime Minister, but I will not comply with the demands they make for it," referring directly to the party Junts.
Junts is currently under the helm of Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia's former regional president, who attempted and failed to break away from Spain back in October 2017. As Spain moved to assert its direct control over the region, Puigdemont evaded arrest by fleeing Spain and since then, he has resided in Belgium fighting extradition orders.
Junts had been playing a minor role in recent years under Sanchez's political reign. However, it unexpectedly rose to prominence as a pivotal player in the wake of July's election. The amnesty that Junts is lobbying for would be advantageous for Puigdemont.