Rajoy confident Sánchez will fail
Rajoy aims to hold out until the end of the legislature and accuses Pedro Sánchez of wanting to “weaken Spain”
Mariano Rajoy proved once again true to form: he did nothing. As always, when under pressure, he withdrew inside the Moncloa in wait for his rivals to fail in their attempt to oust him from his position. In this case, the main opponent is the PSOE’s Pedro Sánchez who yesterday announced that his party would table a vote of no confidence.
Rajoy’s response was directed to possible fellow travellers in the censorship vote informing them that Sánchez “wants to be prime minister at any cost,” adding that “any day now we will see him reaching an agreement with Puigdemont.”
The move by Sánchez does have its risks. The mathematics needed for the vote to prosper are complicated and the numbers need to add up to feasible support among widely divergent political options, even more so. Even so, Sánchez claims the the motion will go ahead and that he will draw lines which cannot be crossed, such as giving in to ultimatums from independence parties.
Already Podem has publically stated it will support the motion without “conditions” while Ciutadans aims simply for elections to be called as early as possible. Of the 176 votes need, some of the parties involved have already stated that at this time there is only one option, and that is to remove Rajoy from office and the PP from government.
The prime minister is prepared to play it out and insists on the lack of cohesion surrounding Sánchez within his own party and the danger to the present economic recovery. As well, by emphasising the need of the PSOE to have the support of all parties beside the PP and Cs, any possible agreement with ERC and PdeCat would lead, in his eyes, to weakening Spain as a whole. Even so, the final test will be to attract the support of the PNV.