Spanish People’s Party (PP, right) president Alberto Núñez Feijóo said on Monday he has already made contacts to try to form a government after Sunday’s elections and reiterated that he must govern the candidate with the most votes.
The PP won Sunday’s parliamentary elections without an absolute majority alone or with the far-right VOX party, with whom it governs three autonomous regions of Spain in coalition.
Feijóo said this Monday that “as leader of the party with the most votes” he had already established contacts with several political forces with the aim of soon forming a “stable government in Spain” and guaranteed the support of one of them, the União do Povo Navarro (UPN), which elected a deputy on Sunday.
The PP elected 136 deputies and 176 are needed for an absolute majority in parliament.
Feijóo said he had also contacted the Canary Coalition (1 deputy) and that “the way was open” for supporting a PP government. In addition, after initial contact, he plans to continue talks with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV, 5 deputies) and VOX (33 deputies) in the coming days.
The PNV enabled the current left-wing and far-left government led by socialist Pedro Sánchez in the last legislature and claimed during the electoral campaign of Sunday’s parliamentary elections that the PP had crossed an unacceptable line by making arrangements with VOX in several autonomous regions and municipalities.
PNV president Andoni Ortuzar said on Sunday that the party’s votes “look decisive again” and guaranteed they will be managed responsibly, “combining the binomial defense of Euskadi [o País Basco]on the one hand, and the consolidation and promotion of democratic principles on the other”.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo brought forward this Monday that he has also contacted the PSOE and agreed to speak again with Socialist leader and Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, after the final and formal verification of the election results, scheduled for next Friday.
The PP leader was speaking at the start of a meeting of the party’s national leaders in Madrid, during an intervention broadcast on popular social networks.
Feijóo reiterated that in Spain the party with the most votes should rule and that the country “needs a change, a new era, moderation and understanding in government, without depending on radical and independent minorities”.
The PP leader said that in Spain the party with the most votes has always ruled and criticized the possibility of now having a “coalition of losers”, with “even higher demands and a greater presence of independents”, including that of “a party led by a fugitive from Spanish justice”.
Feijóo referred to the former president of the regional government of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium since the Catalan independence attempt in 2017, to escape Spanish justice.
Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), on Sunday elected six deputies who could be decisive in the formation of the next Spanish government, given the alignment of the various forces with either the left or the right.
The PSOE leadership also met this Monday, in the presence of Pedro Sánchez, but there were no official statements at the end of the meeting.
Pedro Sánchez celebrated the “failure of the setback bloc” on Sunday, saying there are “many more” who want “Spain to move forward, and it will continue to do so”, but gave no indication of what he will do or when he will do it regarding the formation of a new executive.
PSOE leading sources, quoted by several Spanish media, assured that Sánchez said at today’s meeting that “democracy will find the formula for governability” and that there will be no blockade leading to a repeat of the elections, without revealing any steps or negotiations towards forming a left-wing government.
Somar, the far-left platform led by the current Minister of Labor and Vice President of the Spanish Government, Yolanda Díaz, has already started negotiations with the Catalan independence parties today.
In the campaign, PSOE and Somar assumed the intention to govern together in the next legislature.
Source: DN
