Spain’s Socialists strike coalition deal with Podemos

Spain’s Socialist Party PSOE yesterday afternoon reached a preliminary coalition deal with the Unidas Podemos to form a government. This was reached within 48 hours of Sunday's general election, as PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez had said earlier.

Sanchez will be President and Podmos' leader Pablo Iglesias will be vice-President.

Other smaller parties are being brought in, as the coalition needs to have a majority in the Spanish parliament.

The PSOE could have struck a coalition with Podemos instead of calling a general election, but Sanchez wanted to have an all-PSOE government. 

However, his plan backfired, and instead of winning more seats he secured a drop from 123 to 120 seats, while Podemos also went down from 42 to 35.

Meanwhile the far-right Vox party surged forward as did the PP party, which spurred Sanchez to do something about striking a coaltion which was now inevitable if they were to retain power.

At a joint press conference, which was televised, Sanchez and Iglesias announced that they had reached a pre-agreement to form a progressive government. "It is an agreement for 4 years," they said.

However, sources in other parties lost no time in predicting that the coalition would not last 4 years.

13-11-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR