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Spanish Party Offers Way Out of Political Limbo, Election Still Looming

Reuters

   MADRID - The leader of Spain's center-right Ciudadanos party offered on
   Monday to break a political deadlock and avoid another election by
   facilitating Socialist party leader Pedro Sanchez's confirmation as
   premier if certain conditions are met.

   A Socialist party source scoffed at the surprise move by Spain's
   third-largest party as pre-election maneuvering, however, and analysts
   largely dismissed it as a way of blaming Sanchez for any repeat
   election, a scenario that looks increasingly likely.

   The Socialists won an election in April without enough seats to govern
   on their own, illustrating how politics in the eurozone's
   fourth-largest economy have fragmented with the emergence of new
   parties.

   Sanchez, 47, is the acting premier, but no major policies are going
   through parliament for lack of a majority and the budget will roll over
   unless the impasse is resolved.

   If the divided parliament does not confirm Sanchez as premier by Sept.
   2, a process known as investiture, a new election will be held on Nov.
   10 - the fourth in four years - with no guarantee it would be any
   easier to put a government together afterwards.

   Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera on Monday set out three conditions for
   his help in breaking the deadlock: the government must pledge not to
   increase taxes, apply direct rule again in Catalonia if the regional
   government rejects an upcoming sentence in a separatist trial, and shun
   a pact with Basque nationalists in Navarra.

   In return, he said he has asked the leader of the second-largest PP
   party, Pablo Casado, to join him in abstaining in any investiture vote,
   which should be enough for Sanchez to become prime minister.

   "We offer a state solution for Spain: we will unblock the investiture
   if Sanchez accepts three conditions," Rivera said.

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