King Felipe starts last round of talks with party leaders in a bid to avert a third election

The last to meet with the monarch will be PP leader and acting president Mariano Rajoy at around 15.30 tomorrow (Tuesday), after the head of the administration committee currently running the PSOE, Javier Fernández, explains to the King that the party will abstain in the second round of presidential votes.

This said, several party members have already said they will go against the majority and vote 'no' to Rajoy.

Head of Nueva Canarias Pedro Quevedo has told the King he will vote 'no', although the Canarian Coalition leader Ana Oromas has said she is so fed up with Spain's not having a government she will vote in favour of Rajoy, even though she does not agree with his policies.

Javier Esparza of UPN (pictured here with the King) and Isidro Manuel Martínez of the Asturias Forum say they will support Rajoy's investiture.

In a press release, head of the Catalunya socialists Miquel Iceta has said his team will vote 'no' to Rajoy 'whatever the consequences'.

Balearic socialist leader Francina Armengol says she will try to convince the PSOE administration team not to force the whole of the party to go along with the 139 out of 237 who voted to abstain in the second round of Rajoy's presidential ceremony.

Albert Rivera of centre-right Ciudadanos – who supported Rajoy at his last failed investiture subject to very strict conditions – says the acting president 'will have to talk openly with the opposition' and could expect to be 'controlled by Parliament', but said Ciudadanos' 32 MPs would vote to put him back in the hotseat.

It is not yet known whether he will revive the programme of changes and the anti-corruption pact Rajoy was forced to sign at the last investiture as a condition of Ciudadanos' supporting him.