PSOE may consider coalition with Podemos and Ciudadanos to oust PP

Despite the no-confidence motion against PP leader and national president Mariano Rajoy having failed to prosper, Ábalos says: “A priori, things can seem very difficult or even impossible, but those of us who lived through the change from the dictatorship to democracy also knew it was not going to be easy; and in politics, if you think everything is impossible, you'd be better off doing another job instead.”

Ábalos, based in Valencia, said during an interview on Spain's fifth channel, TeleCinco, that the socialists (PSOE) had not given up on becoming the largest party again after the next general elections, but that it realised it would have to 'manage the reality imposed by the ballot boxes'.

And Sánchez appears to have revived his original plan of combining the three forces together for a 'government of change', even though two previous attempts at doing so failed because Podemos and Ciudadanos refused to work with each other.

Podemos has reportedly tried to encourage Sánchez to form a coalition with them and with the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), stressing that although their ideas were radically different in some areas, the pro-secession regional group was 'honourable and honest'.

Sánchez has reportedly urged Ciudadanos' and Podemos' leaders, Albert Rivera and Pablo Iglesias respectively, to 'lift their mutual veto' in order to 'achieve a Parliamentary majority as soon as possible' and oust 'a right-wing government riddled with corruption'.

But Rivera has responded that he has no intention of forming part of a 'Frankenstein government' like the tripartite coalition Sánchez tried to form a year ago with Ciudadanos and Podemos.