SOCIALIST leader Pedro Sánchez is now president of Spain after a no-confidence vote against the PP's Mariano Rajoy prospered with 180 votes – four more than the 176 majority needed to pass the motion.
Sánchez is now preparing to move into the Moncloa Palace, the official presidential residence, after receiving votes in favour from Unidos Podemos, two Catalunya regional parties ERC and PDeCAT, Basque parties PNV and EH Bildu, and the sole MP from Nueva Canaria, Pedro Quevedo.
Canarian Coalition's lone MP Ana Oramas abstained, and Spain's fourth-largest political party, the centre-right Ciudadanos, voted against as they believe the motion to be undemocratic and a snap general election should be called instead.
But Pedro Sánchez, a 46-year-old economics graduate and keen basketball player from Madrid, is going to have a tough challenge on his hands: his party, the second-largest in Parliament, only holds 84 seats out of the total of 350, and his new job comes right in the middle of the Catalunya separatist crisis which led to the right-wing PP government stripping the region of its self-ruling powers and to several politicians being jailed or forced into exile.
Spain has also been warned by the European Union that it is likely to fail in its debt targets this year, yet essential services such as education, welfare, social care and healthcare remain underfunded and understaffed.
Whilst unemployment has fallen dramatically since the PP took office in November 2011, the jobseeker percentage only shows part of the story: wages continue to be low, with one of the most reduced minimum wages in western Europe, and temporary work with long gaps in between are rife – in fact, over 90% of new jobs created are temporary only, often seasonal, even outside of the main tourism belts.
Balancing the books and trying to solve the Catalunya independence crisis would be complicated enough for a government with a Parliamentary majority – something Spain has not had since the general elections of November 2015.
Sánchez, thanking Parliament for its support, says he intends to work for 'social cohesion' and 'social stability', which will mean 'attending to some long-overdue social emergencies created and neglected by the PP', as well as addressing issues of gender equality and the environment 'as society is calling for'.
Crucially, he says the interests of the people of Spain will always come before those of politicians and parties.
The PSOE leader says he is 'conscious of the responsibility' he is taking on, but pledges to exercise his role 'with dedication and humility', aiming to 'transform and modernise' the country.
“Spain deserves it,” he concludes.
Parliamentary chairwoman Ana Pastor (PP) is now in the Zarzuela Palace to officially communicate the change in president to King Felipe VI.
Sánchez will be sworn in tomorrow (Saturday), until which time Rajoy, technically, will have to carry on in his job for another day.
Rajoy only attended the first few hours of yesterday's debate around the no-confidence motion – at around 15.30, he vacated the building and missed the remaining discussions which went on until the night.
While Rajoy sat for eight hours in a restaurant near the Parliament building, his deputy, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, used the now-ex president's chair for her handbag.
Left-wing Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias said it was 'a shame Rajoy's seat was occupied by a handbag' during one of the most critical Parliamentary discussions so far this year, if not of his entire reign.
