King Felipe VI invites People's Party to attempt to form government
Speaker yet to announce date of investiture vote as conservatives scramble for support
Spain's King Felipe VI has invited the conservative People's Party to attempt to form a government.
The decision was announced by Socialist congressional speaker Francina Armengol Tuesday evening after the monarch concluded a round of talks with the heads of Spain's main political parties to discuss forming a new cabinet in Madrid.
This means the head of the conservatives, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will submit to an investiture vote in Congress on a yet-to-be-determined date in the near future.
The People's Party was the most-voted party in last month's general election, but Feijóo's success is anything but certain as the conservatives fell short of a 176 MP majority.
Although far-right Vox has pledged to vote for Feijóo, as have two smaller regional parties, the conservatives still only have 172 MPs backing them for now - not enough for a People's Party victory.
A statement issued by the Spanish Royal Family Tuesday evening justified the monarch's decision to select Feijóo over the Socialist acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who had also expressed his willingness to seek an investiture vote, by highlighting that the People's Party "was the political party that obtained the greatest number of seats in the July 23 elections."
"Except for the XI legislature, in all the general elections held since the constitution came into force, the candidate of the political party that has obtained the most seats has been the first to be proposed by the king as a candidate," the statement continues.
If Feijóo is unable to win the investiture vote, which currently seems unlikely, Congress will be dissolved two months after the first failed attempt if no candidate is able to form a government and a new election will be called.
The Socialists, whose speaker candidate won more votes than the People's Party's Cuca Gamarra last week, are now on a quest to secure the critical support of the Catalan pro-independence parties: moderate Esquerra Republicana and hardline Junts per Catalunya.
This will be no easy feat for the left-wing unionist party as at the moment both are demanding an amnesty for independence leaders as well as a referendum - issues that could potentially see Spaniards head to the polls again in a few months' time.