Rajoy invested as president despite 15 socialists breaking the rules and voting 'no'
Sunday, October 30, 2016 @ 8:09 PM
MARIANO Rajoy (PP) has successfully got through his sixth round of voting this year to become president of Spain for another term, governing in a minority with 137 seats out of 350.
As before, the PP itself voted in favour – 134 members of the party plus three others from UPN-Navarra and the Asturian Forum, who stood in coalition with the right-wing party in the last general election – plus Ciudadanos, another 32, and the sole MP for the Canarian Coalition.
Voting against were 67 members of Unidos Podemos and 15 from the non-affiliated group who had been part of other parties before the elections such as the socialists and Unidos Podemos.
The non-affiliated group included Valencian party Compromís (four in total), two from the Basque party EH-Bildu, one from Nueva Canarias and eight from the Catalunya-based party PDECat.
Also voting against were nine members of the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), the five members of the Basque National Party, PNV – and 15 socialists.
The other 68 socialists duly abstained as instructed by their Federal Committee, although two of these – Murcia's María González Veracruz and Asturias' Adriana Lastra – did so under protest, using the formula 'abstain by imperative', so as not to suffer the consequences of 'disobeying' their party.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com