Postal vote count gives extra seat to PP as Basque National Party loses MP number seven
Friday, November 15, 2019 @ 7:03 PM
POSTAL votes from overseas have now been counted, changing the election results from Sunday – the right-wing PP has gained another seat, giving it 89, and the Basque National Party (PNV) has lost one, dropping to six.
This makes life a little more difficult for the PSOE's Pedro Sánchez who, with 120 seats out of the total of 350 and with 176 needed for a majority, needs to find an additional vote in his favour to replace the outgoing PNV MP.
With 35 now guaranteed from left-wing Unidas Podemos thanks to a coalition agreement struck on Tuesday, plus another certainty from the Cantabria Regional Party's lone MP and five highly likely from Más País!, the Galicia National Bloc (BNG), and Teruel Existe, this gives Sánchez 161, but with the PNV's having dropped from seven to six, the 'definites' now only total 167.
Even if the Basque reunification party, EH-Bildu's five MPs and the two from the Canarian Coalition agree to vote for Sánchez, he will still only have 174 in favour and be two short.
This is likely to mean he will have to convince the Catalunya separatist parties, who total 23 MPs, to at least abstain from voting in the second round, where only a simple majority in favour is needed – but the largest of the three pro-independence outfits, the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), with 13, have already said they want an amnesty for their jailed politicians in exchange.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com