Spain: who will manage to form a government?
Popular Party (PP) leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative winner of Spain's general election in July, has until 26 September to secure enough votes to form a government. However, the Socialists under acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have refused his offer of a government pact on core issues in exchange for their supporting a PP minority government. Sánchez is negotiating with separatist regional parties in the hope of being able to continue his leftist government.
PP's efforts doomed to fail
Feijóo's patience will be put to the test, ABC suspects:
“A month is a long time in this scenario, and Feijóo's attempt to organise an inauguration that is doomed to fail could drag on. ... The offer of government pacts boosts his public profile, but the narrative about having won the election has a sell-by date even if the show is tempting and puts him in the spotlight. For Sánchez, on the other hand, it's good that his rival is getting to go first, as this gives him time to slowly put together the amnesty law that [separatist leader Carles] Puigdemont is demanding as a first quid pro quo for his collaboration.”
Missed opportunity for depolarisation
El Mundo is irked that Sánchez rejected Feijóo's offer:
“The PP leader offered the caretaker president a national pact that would create a space of understanding between the two parties representing the social majority in Spain. To do this, he wanted to activate two key elements that were lost in the last legislature: reason of state, which would have been expressed in six government pacts, and the offer to jointly begin a period in which the bloc mentality of the last few years is abandoned. As expected, Sánchez, arrogantly rejected this proposal. ... It is a democratic anomaly that there is no space for reaching an understanding between the representatives of the two parties that have been the driving forces of our democracy.”