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PSOE courts Cs support

Socialists ready for election in “a few months” if Cs back no confidence vote against Rajoy, while Torra offers support if Sánchez defends imprisoned officials

The secretary general of Ciudadanos (Cs) yesterday repeated his party’s rejection of the vote of no confidence in Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy proposed by the Socialist party (PSOE) leader, Pedro Sánchez, calling it “hasty and irresponsible”. Yet, José Manuel Villegas urged PSOE to present a joint motion with Cs, with the aim of forcing an early election as soon as possible.

The pressure from Cs came after PSOE’s Carmen Calvo argued for waiting a “reasonable” amount of time before going to the ballot box, and supporting Sánchez’s idea of calling an election in “a few months”. The secretary of PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, said his party would be willing to reach an agreement with Cs on calling an election if they were to support Sánchez’s motion. Forcing an election “will not be a problem,” said Ábalos, who called on Cs to “stop making excuses” and to support Sánchez.

For his part, Catalan president, Quim Torra, said he supported PSOE’s proposal, as long as the party put forward a “republican programme” and defended the “Catalan political prisoners.” “Mr Pedro Sánchez will have our support in everything that defends the public’s civil and political rights. That means supporting the Catalan political prisoners and exiles,” he said, while the head of the PdeCAT party, Marta Pascal, warned that her party’s eight votes in the Spanish parliament “will be incompatible” with those of Cs.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the ERC party, Marta Vilalta, described Sánchez’s proposal as a “window of opportunity” to reach a political solution to the conflict with Catalonia.

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