Spain’s opposition leader on Tuesday stuck to his plan to win enough support in parliament to form a right-wing government after a tight national election on Sunday, even as such prospects looked bleak after a Basque party refused to negotiate.
The center-right Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) said on Twitter that its president had communicated to Popular Party (PP) leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo that the PNV would not hold any discussions to support his candidacy for prime minister.
The PP won 136 seats in the 350-seat lower house, well short of the 176 MPs needed for an absolute majority. The party will only be able to form a government with the support of other parties, including Vox, the extreme right, with which it has established alliances in several regional governments.
Vox lost seats in Sunday’s vote, brushing aside the prospect of a nationalist-backed government and pointing to limitations in the European far right’s bid to become dominant.
Polls predicted a victory for the PP, with Vox helping to consolidate a new conservative government, but together they failed to win a majority, leaving the pro-independence parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country in power in a divided parliament.
“Saying you don’t have support because of a conversation with some group is a foregone conclusion,” Feijóo told reporters on Tuesday. He said he has yet to speak with Vox leadership.
“It would be a mistake to allow the separatists to rule,” he added, referring to what he described as a “coalition of losers” led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialists, which won 122 seats.
The Spanish right has criticized the left, which has been in power since 2018, for its reliance on pro-independence parties, while the left has warned of a return to backtracking policies on civil and women’s rights and immigration.
Sánchez could renew his mandate if he wins the support of parties that defend the independence of the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia regions, as well as the PNV, although a new election is seen as a clear possibility.
Feijóo said he planned to speak with Sánchez soon, which suggested he could still try to convince the Socialists to make his government possible with abstention.
Other parties have also signaled their opposition to any coalition that includes the far right.
Right wins in Spain, but without majority to govern
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Belén Carreño)
Source: CNN Brasil
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