Sanchez cannot convince Conservatives and Liberals to support him

USPA NEWS - Five weeks after the legislative elections on 10th November the Socialist candidate for the Presidency of the Spanish Government and acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, received the opposition leader, the conservative Pablo Casado, and the spokesperson and future leader of the centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens), Inés Arrimadas, this Monday at the Moncloa Palace. He confirmed to both of them that the negotiations with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC in its Catalan acronym) will continue, in search of the Republican abstention. And he asked them to abstain, in the case of the conservative Partido Popular (PP), and to vote in favour of his investiture, in the case of Ciudadanos.

Against the wishes of the Socialist candidate, the leader of the opposition, Pablo Casado, insisted that his party will vote "no" to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Conservatives believe that the socialist candidate is the real problem in unblocking Spain's political situation, and some prominent Partido Popular leaders admit privately that, with another candidate, his formation could abstain. The Socialist Party's current offer - abstention to facilitate a Socialist government with the extreme left represented in Podemos and the support of ERC - does not convince the conservatives, who during their leader's interview with the socialist candidate did not move from their initial position.

Also the spokeswoman for Ciudadanos stood firm in her proposal to the Socialist candidate and acting Prime Minister. Arrimadas offered him the support of his party and that of the conservative Partido Popular, in exchange for Pedro Sánchez renouncing to form a government with Podemos and depending on the abstention of the Catalan Republicans. This is what the liberal candidate calls "the way 221" because those would be the seats to be added by the three parties in a great constitutionalist coalition. In an interview published on Monday by the newspaper El Mundo, Arrimadas considers that, if all these circumstances were to occur, the conservative Popular Party would be forced to sit at the negotiating table and support the investiture of Sánchez.

But circumstances do not exist. While the Socialist candidate met with the leaders of the Partido Popular and Ciudadanos, his number 2 in the party, Adriana Lastra, who this Tuesday will meet with the rest of the parties of the parliamentary arch, except the far-right VOX, which has rejected the invitation, announced to the press that negotiations with ERC will continue and was convinced that they will reach a good port. This reveals Pedro Sánchez's firm intention to govern with Podemos and seek the support of the Catalan and Basque nationalists and the independentists.

For Spanish political analysts, the meetings that began on Monday have a clear purpose: to dilute the meeting that Pedro Sanchez will hold with the president of the regional government of Catalonia, Quim Torra, and to whitewash the negotiations that the socialists have with the Catalan Republicans. Be it that or Pedro Sánchez's desire to find a plan B for his investiture, today the Socialist candidate does not have enough support to be invested and he will not have it until after the Christmas holidays.