Rajoy insists on claiming a pact with socialists and Citizens

USPA NEWS - The acting Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, insisted Wednesday on the "need" to form a strong Government in Spain and called for a grand coalition between the conservative Popular Party, the Socialist Party and the centrist Citizens.

According to Rajoy, a grand coalition of the three parties is the best option and would form a stable Government for a term of four years. That Government, he said, would undertake "reforms that Spain needs" and consolidate economic recovery. Moreover, he insisted, he would be well regarded inside and outside of Spain because it is what it is now doing in Europe. Rajoy met for the first time with the parliamentary group of the XI Legislature before the start of the full constitution of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Mariano Rajoy's proposal was rejected again by the secretary general of the Socialist Party, Pedro Sanchez, who insists that Spain asks for a change of Government and seeks to reach agreements with other leftist parties to form a majority to govern. However, the Socialist leader will not add accounts: its 90 deputies plus 69 Podemos and the two of United Left, totaling 161 seats. 123 Conservative MPs plus 40 Citizens, totaling 163 seats. Sanchez require the affirmative vote of the Catalan and Basque independence to govern.

The problem is that although the Catalan separatists said they would support the Socialist candidate to prevent a new conservative mandate, "that does not suit Catalonia," the former president of the regional Government of Catalonia, Artur Mas, said, the Socialist Party it is contrary to the Catalan independence and that reduces the chances of reaching an agreement with Catalan and Basque.

The first plenary session of the House of Representatives will be held, predictably, the last week of January. The next two weeks will be intense, with negotiations between all parties to try to form a new Government. The Spanish legislation does not impose deadlines for the election of the president, although the tradition fixed in two weeks the deadline for the holding of the first plenary session and, if the candidate of the winning party does not obtain the required majority to be elected, two months for the submission other candidates. Failing agreement, Spain should hold new legislative elections next May.