Spain: the PSOE intends to rule without allies to avoid the conditions

The decision disappoints above all the radical left alliance United we canwho wanted to co-govern with Sanchez. However, this seems to indicate the mistrust of the business world vis-à-vis the influence that the leader of this company could exercise. Pablo Iglesias.

"There is more than enough support to fly this ship," said Interim Socialist Vice President Carmen Calvo, adding that her party intended to form a progressive monochrome executive. "We think we can continue to move forward with this formula that we have started," he said, recalling that his party was already governing with only 85 deputies and that it could now do so with 123 deputies, a number much larger but also lower than the majority of the 176 seats. "We will be a progressive government, we are the left-wing government, that's why we are fighting within the PSOE, so as not to give up this space" to Unidas Podemos, said Calvo in an interview with the radio Cadena Ser.

After reading the results, Pablo Iglesias, whose party coalition had won 42 seats – a significant step back from the 71 he had held – turned to Sanchez to work towards the goal of forming a progressive coalition government.

However, the PSOE does not intend to integrate United Podemos to the executive, even if it intends to continue to receive its parliamentary support, which was so far essential. "They are strengthening us as a progressive government, we can continue to move forward in this formula," said Calvo.

In the same vein, the secretary of the Organization of the PSOE was pronounced, José Luis Ábalos, who recalled that the addition of Podemos in a coalition government is not enough to obtain the absolute majority.

The PSOE reached an agreement with Unidas Podemos, but it would remain 11 seats in the absolute majority. He will therefore need pacts with Basque nationalists and other minority parties to form a government. In a second vote, Sanchez could be invested with the abstention of Catalan secessionists, a difficult but not impossible possibility.

Ábalos has ruled out that his party is seeking support from the secessionists of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) to form a government, but it would be different to achieve their abstention.

ERC, for its part, has already put its conditions on the table. "We propose a table of dialogue and negotiation, talking about a referendum and legislative initiatives to initiate legal proceedings against our colleagues."He said Gabriel Rufián, the number two party led by Oriol Junqueras, who, from prison, won an undisputed triumph for his party in Catalonia.

For a good part of the population and the political arc, an agreement with the Catalan nationalists would be extremely embarrbading for Pedro Sánchez.

At the same time, the option of concluding a pact with Ciudadanos, to which the PSOE would add an absolute majority, was virtually ruled out after Inés Arrimadas, the leader in Catalonia, insisted that her party be " the government alternative ". the PSOE can not claim to be in agreement with them after having "sold" Catalonia to the secessionists.