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Leader of Spain's main opposition says won't support Rajoy to govern

Xinhua, January 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he would neither "actively nor passively" support acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to claim a second term.

Sanchez made the remarks in response to Rajoy's accusation earlier in the day that the two had not held a meeting since the Spanish general election on December 20 last year which left a hung parliament.

Rajoy, the leader of the conservative People's Party(PP), has made it clear that in order to form a stable government in Spain, he favors a pact between his party, the PSOE and right-wing Citizens.

He said it was" impossible" to form a government without the support of the PSOE, but said his only contact with Sanchez had been a "five minute conversation."

Speaking in the Senate in response to Rajoy's words, Sanchez invited Rajoy to call him for a meeting "tomorrow." "However, he is going to hear things he's not going to like," he added.

"Rajoy is part of the problem and not the solution for Spain," he said, before giving a "no" to the offer Rajoy made to help the PSOE govern local authorities and regions in return for support in congress.

Speaking a day after another major anti-corruption operation centered on Rajoy's party in the Valencia region, which led to the arrest of 24 people, Sanchez insisted Rajoy should have resigned two years ago when it was shown he had sent a SMS message of support to former PP Treasurer Luis Barcenas, after Barcenas was arrested on corruption charges.

"Once again corruption has hit the PP... the stink is starting to be unsupportable and any party which wants to regenerate the political life in Spain has to fulfil one necessary condition: to ensure the PP go into the opposition, because without the PP in the opposition it will be impossible to generate democracy in our country," said Sanchez, insisting the PSOE would never "actively or passively" support Rajoy or any other PP candidate to become Prime Minister. Endit