Spain Risks Repeat Election as Podemos Holds Sanchez Hostage

(Bloomberg) -- Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said talks have broken down with Podemos, the key partner he needs to take office for a second time, raising the risk of a repeat election in Spain.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has shut down negotiations over a deal to back Sanchez in a confidence vote next week, the premier said Monday in an interview with Cadena Ser radio station.

“We are clearly talking about a complete closing of the doors to any kind of negotiation, a unilateral rupture by Mr Iglesias,” Sanchez said.

In April’s election Sanchez’s Socialists emerged as the biggest party in Spain’s parliament but fell well short of an overall majority, leaving him to negotiate with Podemos, an anti-austerity party. Support from Podemos is crucial to Sanchez’s chances of winning parliamentary support to stay on as prime minister, but will not be enough on its own -- he’d still need additional votes from some minor parties.

Sanchez’s radio interview was remarkable for its tough and angry tone and makes it hard to foresee the damage to relations being repaired in time for next week’s vote, said Lluis Orriols, a political scientist at Carlos III University in Madrid. Even so, if Sanchez fails to become prime minister at the first attempt, there will still in theory be time to mend bridges, he said.

“Being so far apart this close to the investiture vote it looks like a very risky strategy both by Podemos and the Socialists,” said Orriols. “At the moment they’re in the process of moving further apart rather than getting closer.”

Sanchez said he’d made a series of offers to Iglesias, including the chance to name experts with links to Podemos to cabinet posts.

By saying last week he would put the proposal to party activists, Iglesias was signaling he probably won’t offer his support, Sanchez said, calling the maneuver “a giant farce.” Sanchez said he’d had misgivings about having Iglesias joining the government because they are far apart on big issues including the independence campaign in Catalonia.

“It looks like Pedro Sanchez is very worried about the Podemos consultation,” Javier Sanchez Serna, a Podemos deputy, said on Twitter. He said party members taking part wouldn’t appreciate “blackmail.”

“Almost three months after the elections, and with parliament stalled by the Socialist party, Pedro Sanchez starts a media campaign to blame the blockade on the other parties,” Alberto Garzon, the leader of Izquierda Unida, a Podemos ally, said in a Tweet.

Sanchez said he would try to call Pablo Casado, of the conservative People’s Party, and Albert Rivera, from the center-right Ciudadanos, and ask them to abstain from a sense of national responsibility. Sanchez’s Socialists won twice as many seats as the next biggest party but the fragmented parliament has left him struggling to piece together a majority.

He said Rivera isn’t answering his phone calls, an attitude he said he deplored.

If Sanchez can’t get through next week’s investiture vote, Spain’s constitutional clock starts the countdown toward a repeat election. The premier would have another two months to win a majority before parliament is dissolved and Spaniards are sent back to the polls again, just as they were in 2016 after the previous year’s election ended in a similar deadlock.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Flavia Krause-Jackson

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