Pedro Sánchez becomes new Spanish PM after parliament ousts Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy has been unseated as Spanish Prime Minister on Friday following the vote of no confidence in parliament that had been tabled by opposition leader Pedro Sánchez.

Contrary to the expectation of some, Rajoy did not choose to step down nor call for fresh elections himself, allowing Sánchez to become prime minister-designate.

Indeed, on Thursday Rajoy did not attend the second part of the parliamentary session in which MPs were setting out their arguments in favour and against the no-confdience vote, although in the evening he was spotted having dinner with members of his Cabinet in a restaurant located in central Madrid.

The spokesman for his PP party, Rafael Hernando, urged Sanchez on Friday morning to withdraw his motion against the Government and not to move forward with the votes of "the old friends of ETA", in reference to Bildu, and the "coup leaders" in Catalonia, in reference to PDeCAT and ERC. He also accussed the Socialist leader of seeking to gain power at any cost, despite his poor track record at the polls. "What a shame!".

Rajoy lost the vote by 180 ballots to 169.

Voting in favour of the removal of the PM were PSOE, Podemos, ERC, PDeCAT, PNV, Compromís, EH Bildu and Nueva Canarias.

Sánchez may take over as soon as Monday but it remained unclear when he would call for new elections.

The question on everyone's minds now is what policies exactly Sanchez will implement, especially as regards nationalist parties in Catalonia and the Basque country.

The PSOE's leader did say on Thursday that he would stick to the recently-approved 2018 Budget law and would work hard to ensure a satisfactory budget for 2019

However, he also said he would push for changes to increase the editorial independence of state broadcaster RTVE, restore universal access to the Spanish health system, remove some of the harsher aspects of the 2015 law governing public distrubances and abolish the so-called "sun tax" (a tax on self-consumption of solar power).

For his part, and according to sources close to the PP, Mariano Rajoy had called a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the PP for Tuesday in order to analyse where the party stands after losing power.