Spanish parliament moves to unseat PM gain some momentum
Spain's two largest opposition parties, PSOE and Podemos, have gained a degree support from the remainder of parliamentary groups for their attempts to remove Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from power through a vote of no confidence scheduled for Friday.
Last week, Socialist (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez proposed a short-term government under his leadership in order to approve what his party termed a 'social agenda', later invoking a need to ensure that Catalan authorities did not make another attempt at any anti-constitutional moves before new elections were called.
The Ciudadanos party (C's) on the other hand, which until just last week had been providing the Madrid government with some support, and was currently leading in voter polls, said it would only vote to unseat Rajoy if PSOE named a Socialist grandee - and not Sánchez - to replace him, tasking him with calling a new vote.
In any case, it would not back a move by PSOE to take over the reins of government for an extended period of time.
Following his own contacts with other parties, and despite his recent loss of face after purchasing an expensive residence in the Madrid suburbs, far-left Podemos chief, Pablo Iglesias, said he believed Rajoy would finally be impeached on Friday.
Rajoy still has the option of resigning before any vote, which would keep his Partido Popular in charge, but would require a new Prime Minister.
He could also call new elections although, according to the first polls published in the wake of a very critical High Court ruling regarding some of his parties deputies, his PP party had now fallen from second place to fourth in voter intentions.
In a stinging rebuke, on Wednesday deputy PM, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, said that Sánchez’s underlying motives were soley his pure ambition and desire for power.
Complicating Sánchez's choice, any combination of support from nationalist parties, especially those with a pro-secessionist past, ranging from various ones from the region of Catalonia or the Basque PNV, might in fact push some of his supporters towards the centrist C's.
Indeed, even those nationalist parties who would prefer to see Rajoy go would likely be mindful of such a risk.
So too, a longer stretch of improved economic growth might be a risk to their goals.
Furthermore, all parties were also set to go under the microscope - so to speak - at the next municipal, regional and European elections in May 2012.
In fact, for some political observers the most powerful lever of political influence was in fact to be found at the municipal level, given the size of local government budgets.