Rajoy is poised to rule Spain in a minority and seeks opposition support – Financial Daily

By Ignacio Gallegos F.

Ten months of uncertainty and two general elections without a clear winner were necessary for Spain to comply with a government, which could take place through this Saturday, when the current president, Mariano Rajoy, is facing a new debate of investiture with the promise of abstention of socialism.

The victory of the advocate of 61 years is incomplete. With the failure of his attempts to woo the support of the PSOE, his rival historic, Rajoy will rule in a minority, with the mission of rebuilding a political scene that has been harshly criticized by the long-term stagnation.

"When you do not have a parliamentary majority, there are only two options", said yesterday the authority, in her address to the congress. "Or a coalition government, or a series of agreements that prevent a legislature sterile," he said.

in the absence of the first, the ruler will search for the second. In his speech, he promised that his government will seek "agreement, negotiation, assignment, and understanding" and that it will negotiate key reforms in pensions, education, employment, funding, autonomic and corruption, two issues in which he proposed a "broad agreement".

to search For support in your attempt, the ruling stated yesterday that "the political instability has become the biggest risk to our economy. Spain does not need more delays and uncertainties. Now we need to go out to the step with a government that can govern."

The first vote of investiture will take place today and, to stay with the presidency, Rajoy would need an absolute majority has not. In his second attempt, this Saturday, only requires more votes in favor than against, which is possible thanks to the decision of the PSOE refrain in the instance.

minority

"The arithmetic of parliamentary underlying has not changed", wrote the columnist of the british daily Financial Times, Tobias Buck, emphasizing that the ruling PP only controls 137 of the 350 seats in the congress and, together with Citizens –that will support the endowment, with some reservations, not yet achieved a majority. "In other words, the prime minister will have to pray in each act that you want to process. He will lead a minority government to a majority hostile from the first day."

To achieve to be inducted this Saturday, the immediate challenge Rajoy will be responding to the pressure of the European Union to reduce its deficit: Spain promised to keep it inside of 3.1% of GDP in 2017, but it could reach 3.6% in practice. "In some ways, the new administration of Rajoy will need to find tax increases or spending cuts by about 5,000 million euros," estimates Buck.

thereafter, he added, "it is difficult to see much space for political action and legislation."

Tension in Catalonia

The new government of Rajoy face also the growing tension with the aspirations for independence in Catalonia. By the middle of next year, the parliament of the region seeks to approve a series of measures that will formalize the break with the rest of the country, among them a law that affirms the sovereignty of the legislature regional.

The main weapon of the ruling will be the country’s constitutional court, which last December ruled against the Catalan parliament.

Even if you have success in keeping the unity of the country –something that seems likely, given that the majority of the parties rejects the secession of catalonia and that option has lost popular support– Rajoy will probably not be able to modernize the political system of regionalism in Spain. This challenge will remain in the hands of the next ruler.