Investiture vote for new Spanish PM to be held on March 3

The debate and subsequent vote in the Spanish Congress to decide who will be the next Spanish Prime Minister will be held on March 2 and 3, it was confirmed by Speaker Patxi Lopez on Monday.

Lopez made the announcement after meeting Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), who has been given the task of trying to form a viable government by King Felipe VI.

That means Sanchez, whose party won 90 seats in the 350-seat congress in the Dec. 20 general election, has two weeks in order to gather support from parties such as left wing Podemos, center-right Citizens and perhaps, Basque and Catalan nationalist groups that he needs in order to win the investiture vote, which will be held on March 3.

Sanchez would also need to have any possible pacts ratified by a meeting of his party members.

The PSOE finished behind the Peoples Party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy, which won 123 seats, but Rajoy told the king in their last meeting he was currently unable to get enough votes to win an investiture debate and return to office.

Should Sanchez be unable to get support to win the investiture debate, Rajoy has not ruled out attempting to form a government.

However, recent revelations of corruption scandals affecting the PP in Valencia and Madrid have weakened the PP's position in terms of possible political allies and also in recent opinion polls and if Rajoy also failed to form a government, Spaniards would face a second general election, probably on June 26.

Meanwhile the bad relationship between Sanchez and Rajoy were made manifest on Friday when Rajoy refused to publically shake Sanchez's hand before a meeting in the congress building. Endit