Acting Socialist PM says he will govern with party on condition its leader is not in cabinet

The protracted negotiations to form a Spanish government have taken a new twist that could create an awkward atmosphere in the family home of Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the anti-austerity party Podemos, and his partner, Irene Montero, who is the party spokeswoman.

Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist party leader and Spain’s acting prime minister, says he is prepared to form a coalition government with Podemos on condition that Iglesias does not hold a ministerial post.

Montero’s initial reaction was to say that “a veto on Pablo is a veto on Podemos”, but, aware that 70% of the party membership voted in favour of a coalition, she later appeared to backtrack and insisted “there are no red lines”.

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The Socialist party’s spokeswoman, Adriana Lastra, then declared in a radio interview on Friday that the government would not be averse to offering Montero a ministerial post.

Making what he called a “once and once only offer” to form a coalition, Sánchez said he was opposed to Iglesias’s inclusion owing to differences on the Catalan independence movement.

Iglesias supports demands for a referendum on Catalan independence, although he says he hopes it will vote to remain part of Spain. Sánchez opposes a referendum as unconstitutional and rejects claims that Catalan leaders who have been tried for their role in the unilateral declaration of independence in 2017 are political prisoners.

“I can’t have someone in government who doesn’t trust me and who doesn’t respect Spanish democracy because they insist on the Catalan right to self-determination and the existence of political prisoners,” he said of Iglesias.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias before talks on a coalition. Photograph: Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA

With this ultimatum, Sánchez appears to have upped the ante in the game of chicken he has been playing with Iglesias. He knows it is Podemos’s best shot at governing since the party was founded in 2014 and that, having seen poor results in recent years, it will not want to force another general election, the fourth in as many years.

The Socialists won 123 seats in the April general election, 38 more than in 2016, while Podemos won 42, a loss of 29. Even as a coalition they are still 11 seats short of the 176 needed for an absolute majority and Sánchez is hoping to govern with the support of Basque nationalists and independents, without having to rely on Catalan separatist parties that are in any case divided on whether to support him.

The deadline for his investiture is next Thursday. If he fails to form a government, a second attempt will be made on 23 September, and if that fails, the country will go back to polls on 10 November.