Official of Spanish socialist party indicates possible support for Rajoy gov't

An official of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) on Tuesday hinted the party would be prepared to abstain in a possible investiture vote to allow People's Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy to continue as Spanish prime minister.

The indication from Javier Fernandez, the president of the management committee at PSOE, comes in the wake of Pedro Sanchez's resignation as party leader on Saturday.

The PP need PSOE's abstention in order to form a minority government, but with time running out before the congress is dissolved at the end of October, Spain could still face its third general election in a year.

The PSOE were predicted to win only 18.6 percent of the vote in a hypothetical third general election, in a poll published in the ABC newspaper on Monday.

Sanchez's resignation has also left a divided party with no leader, analysts said.

"There is something worse than a minority PP government and that is the PP governing with a majority," said Fernandez, speaking to the press at the Spanish congress.

He said that "everyone knows" a third election would lead to a PP victory and as such an abstention now by the PSOE would "not at all be ideological, it would be tactical."

Fernandez said the decision would be taken at the next meeting of the PSOE federal committee, which has not yet been called. Endit