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Sanchez Edges Closer to Power in Spain After Podemos Backs Down

Socialists’ Bid for Power in Spain Boosted as Podemos Backs Down

(Bloomberg) -- Almost three months after clinching victory in Spain’s general election, Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez is closing in on the support he needs to finally take power.

The acting prime minister is hustling for votes in a fragmented parliament ahead of a confidence vote next week. He achieved an important breakthrough on Friday when his main ally-cum-rival dropped his demands for a cabinet post.

Pablo Iglesias, who leads the left-wing group Podemos, said he doesn’t want to be an impediment to the formation of a progressive government as he backed down, easing weeks of deadlock with Sanchez. Iglesias said he still wants his party to control a number of ministries in a coalition government as a condition of its support for Sanchez’s Socialists.

Sanchez Edges Closer to Power in Spain After Podemos Backs Down

Sanchez said Thursday that he wouldn’t allow Iglesias to be part of his government due to differences on key policy issues including how to handle the Catalan independence campaign. He said he was open to allowing other Podemos members into his cabinet.

Iglesias’s concession brings Spain one big step closer to forming a stable government after almost four years of political drift during which successive administrations failed to command reliable majorities.

Sanchez’s party emerged as the winner of April’s general elections but fell well short of a majority, leaving him needing to negotiate with Podemos and other smaller groups to get through the investiture process that starts in parliament Monday.

“The Socialists say that the only stumbling block in the way of such a government is me,” Iglesias said in a video posted on Twitter. “My presence in the cabinet won’t be a problem.”

Iglesias said he wants Podemos to have a number of ministerial jobs which is proportional to its share of the vote in April’s election.

Sanchez’s Socialists won twice as many votes as Podemos and its allies in the election, meaning Podemos is claiming one third of the ministerial posts. The previous Socialist administration comprised 18 ministries.

In another potential boost for Sanchez, Esquerra Republicana, a Catalan separatist party, said it may abstain in next week’s voting if the Socialists and Podemos can tie up a pact. Support from Esquerra comes at a political cost, though, and Sanchez has said he doesn’t want to rely on pro-independence parties to be able to govern.

A Socialist government reliant on Podemos would likely continue the gradual process of narrowing the country’s budget deficit, while looking to direct benefits to those groups that have so far missed out on the economic recovery. Spain is the fastest growing major economy in the euro area and is set to expand by 2.3% this year, according to the European Commission.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, ;Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty

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