Spain does not appear to be any closer to forming a majority government after the first round of talks held on Wednesday by acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy proved fruitless.
In the second general election within six months, Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) received 137 seats, an increase of 14 but still well below the 175 needed for an absolute majority.
Spain’s Socialist Party was in second place with 85 seats, but its leader, Pedro Sanchez, continues to reject the idea of any alliance with the PP.
"Right now the Popular Party has no support," he told a news conference after his meeting with Rajoy.
Refusal to cooperate also came from anti-austerity Podemos, which captured 71 seats. It is opposed to the pronounced spending cuts the PP had made.
Ciudadanos was the only party after the first election to indicate it could work with the PP. It saw its election results decline to 32 seats in the second attempt and now says it would abstain from voting in the required vote of confidence in the parliament.
In previous years a number of small regional conservative parties from the Basque and Catalonia regions had supported minority PP governments, but they too are refusing to back Rajoy.
When parliament convenes next week, King Felipe VI will have to select one leader who must try to form a government. That leader will face a parliamentary vote of confidence which must have the support of a majority of parliamentarians.
If that fails, a second vote will be held which has the lower threshold of more votes in favour than against.
Since the inconclusive election in December, Spain has been in the hands of Rajoy’s caretaker government which has limited powers.
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Many young people had leftist views at that age, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. It was daring to belong to such a group under the Estado Novo, but not after 1974, when he went to college. It is inconceivable, however, that a young man from an unfashionable background would have been perceived as a political threat to anyone before the Revolution.
Within days of any political protest group like Podemos forming it would have had new members infiltrating across from the old Parties. Sent to oil the wheels. Keep things as they were with just a veneer of change. Just as in the early 70's in Portugal with its Leftist Groups and Communists.
Salazar's thugs and killers also never went away which makes Barroso's claim to have been a Maoist communist during the Salazar era laughable. If he had been seen as a threat he would never have lived long enough to get such a handsome earner from Goldman Sachs