The president of the Spanish Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, thanked King Felipe VI this Tuesday for his appointment as a candidate for Prime Minister and has promised a government of “stability and moderation” if he manages to be elected by Parliament.
“We will give a voice to the more than 11 million citizens who want change, stability and moderation with a government that defends the equality of all Spaniards,” Feijóo wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter), referring to the votes obtained in the legislative elections on July 23 by the Popular Party (PP, right) and other forces that have already expressed their support for his investiture as prime minister by Parliament.
This Tuesday, the King of Spain has proposed the leader of the PP as a candidate for Prime Minister, after the elections on July 23, and now it is up to Parliament to vote on the investiture.
Felipe VI made the decision after a round of hearings, on Monday and today, with the parties that managed to obtain parliamentary representation.
The PP was the most voted in the elections and Feijóo had already said that, for this reason, he was a candidate for prime minister, despite not having the parliamentary support that would guarantee his investiture.
Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez, who won the second-highest number of votes in the elections but has more potential allies in parliament than the PP, also said he was a candidate for prime minister.
The decision of King Felipe VI was publicly communicated by the president of the Spanish Parliament, Francina Armengol, who added that she will now contact Feijóo to agree with the PP leader on the most appropriate date to schedule the debate and the investiture vote.
Feijóo stated, at a press conference after the meeting with the King, that he will need “time” to negotiate with other parties before submitting himself to a vote in Parliament, which cannot happen in “hours or days.”
If the inauguration fails, the king will have to repeat the round of hearings with the parties and name a new candidate for prime minister, as has happened in the past.
Parliament has two months from the first failed investiture vote to choose a prime minister.
If that period ends without investiture, parliament is automatically dissolved and new elections will be held 47 days later.
Feijóo affirmed that he has the support of 172 deputies, “only four away from the absolute majority.” Sánchez, for his part, defended that it has been shown that he was able to gather the majority support of the 350 deputies last week, when the Socialists took over the presidency of Parliament, through the 178 votes of a ‘contrivance’ of parties that includes Nationalists and Basque, Catalan and Galician independentists.
The four parties that did not transmit their vote in Parliament to the king are potential allies of the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez, who is also the current acting president of the Government.
It was the first time in Spanish democracy that two party leaders told the King that they were available to run as a candidate for prime minister.
Both Feijóo and Sánchez said they would respect Felipe VI’s decision and the socialist leader threw the weight of a “failed” investiture on the PP president.
Sánchez affirmed that the attempt to investiture Feijóo will surely fail, but affirmed that the PP leader “has the right” to face again a “reality that emanates from the popular will”, as happened last week, with the election of the presidency of Parliament. .
In a statement, King Felipe VI justified the appointment of Feijóo because traditionally the leader of the party with the most votes in the elections is always proposed by the head of state and because “to this day” there is not “sufficient majority for an investiture to be made this to measure”.
Source: TSF
