Spain's parliament today narrowly elected Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez as prime minister of the new government, ending a nearly year-long political crisis in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.
167 MPs voted for the election of Sánchez, former Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), 165 were against, while 18 abstained.
In the first round of voting on Sunday, Sanchez did not get the support of 176 out of 350 deputies, which was expected, which is why it was enough for him to get a simple majority today, in the second round - more votes for than against.
PSOE will lead the minority government in which its partner will be the left-wing coalition Unidas podemos led by Pablo Iglesias.
In 2019, Spaniards voted twice in extraordinary parliamentary elections. The Socialists won the most votes in both April and November, but not the absolute majority of mandates.
After the elections held on November 10, Sánchez reached a coalition agreement with the United We Can coalition, with which the Socialists together have 155 of the 350 seats in parliament, and are 21 deputies short of an absolute majority.
On Friday, Sánchez reached agreements with several small parties that promised to abstain in the second round of voting, thus allowing Sánchez to be re-elected as prime minister.
The PSOE leader became prime minister in June 2018 after the parliament voted no confidence in the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy, and he was at the head of the technical government for just under a year.
The new Sanchez government will be the first coalition government in Spain since the restoration of democracy in 1978, three years after the death of longtime fascist dictator Francisco Franco.
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