C's' Rivera tables surprise six point plan to support Rajoy

2016-08-19 09:00:00

Albert Rivera’s Ciudadanos party (C’s) made an unexpected move on Tuesday to try to end the stalemate that has being consuming Spanish politics since no party won overall control in June’s general election.
Prior to this week, the centrist C’s had promised to abstain in a parliamentary investiture debate for Mariano Rajoy, although they stopped short of supporting him. Rajoy, as leader of the Partido Popular (PP), the party with the largest number of seats, has been trying to get support from other MPs to enable him to be sworn in as Prime Minister. However failure to get the rival PSOEparty to support him or at least abstain, essential for the numbers to add up in his favour, has so far blocked progress.
This week, C’s’ Rivera went one step further to try to unblock Spain. In return for the PPaccepting six anti-corruption measures (see side panel), he has promised to ask his party’s MPs to vote in favour of Rajoy as PM. However he would not go as far as a long-term support deal for a PPgovernment, stating that there was a lot more negotiation to do afterwards.
Rajoy will spend this weekend considering the measures before presenting them to his PP executive committee next Wednesday, (17 August). Some committee members have already said they will approve them.
Even with a clear C’s “Sí” to Rajoy, it would still not be enough votes for him to become PM without other MPs abstaining. Further pressure was mounting on Pedro Sánchez’s PSOEthis weekend, even from within his party’s own ranks, to abstain in a vote to allow Rajoy to form a government. Rivera has also demanded that Rajoy finally fix a date for the elusive investiture debate.source surinenglish