But Mariano Rajoy does not say he will submit to a vote of confidence, with opposition parties saying they will not support him

Efforts to end the political deadlock that has paralysed Spain for seven months have faced another setback after the acting prime minister accepted the king’s invitation to try to form a new government, but failed to say whether he would submit himself to parliament for approval.



Spain has been without a government since an inconclusive general election in December last year. Another general election in June also yielded a hung parliament.

On Thursday night, the acting Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, whose conservative Partido Popular (PP) won the most seats, but fell short of an absolute majority in both elections, said he had accepted King Felipe’s invitation to build “a stable and solid government as quickly as possible”.

Rajoy said he would update the king “after a reasonable period of time” on how meetings with political rivals had gone and let him know whether he had won the support needed to seek investiture before parliament.

Opponents seized on Rajoy’s apparent refusal to submit himself to parliament, arguing that Spain’s constitution makes it quite clear that anyone who accepts the king’s invitation to form a government is obliged to present themselves to the congress of deputies for a vote of confidence.

“It’s irresponsible of Mr Rajoy to speculate about the possibility of not presenting himself for investiture,” a spokesman for the centre-left Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) said. “We call on him to be serious and to respect the constitution.”

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The PP has 137 of the 176 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. Rajoy’s chances of securing a deal are slim after months of bickering and hard bargaining. The PSOE, which came second in both elections, has ruled out supporting Rajoy, as has the far-left Unidos Podemos (United We Can) coalition.

The centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens), which had suggested that the best way of avoiding a third general election would be for the main parties to abstain in the confidence vote, thereby allowing Rajoy to lead a minority government, has also refused to back the acting prime minister.

The Ciudadanos leader, Albert Rivera, said while his party would abstain in the vote, it would not support Rajoy’s party because the PP had not shown the necessary commitment “to renewal and regeneration”.

The PP, which has been engulfed by corruption scandals in recent years, suffered further embarrassment this week after a court ordered the party to stand trial over the destruction of two computers used by a former treasurer who is being tried over an alleged secret slush fund.

The news that Spain’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in six years has been overshadowed by the Catalan independence movement’s continuing to drive to push for separation from Spain in defiance of the Spanish constitutional court.

On Friday, Rajoy’s cabinet asked the court to take action against Carme Forcadell, the pro-separatist president of the Catalan parliament, for allowing Wednesday’s controversial debate on moves towards independence. Ministers said the regional parliament had “flagrantly infringed the rule of law and the constitutional order”.

If neither Rajoy nor any other candidate wins an investiture vote in congress within a two-month period, the king will dissolve parliament and call another election.

