Mariano Rajoy Ousted in Spanish No-Confidence Vote

Image

Mariano Rajoy was one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders. After losing a confidence vote, he told lawmakers he had left Spain “better off than I had found it.”CreditFrancisco Seco/Associated Press

By Raphael Minder

June 1, 2018

MADRID — Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain lost a no-confidence vote on Friday, ousting one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders from office over a major corruption scandal within his conservative party.

Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the main opposition Socialist Party, is set to replace Mr. Rajoy as prime minister as soon as this weekend. But with Mr. Sánchez’s party holding just 84 of the 350 seats in Parliament, his mandate could be short-lived, paving the way for another general election.

The abrupt leadership switch in Spain amplifies the political uncertainty in southern Europe, coming on the heels of the recent power struggle in Italy. The developments in Italy have rattled financial markets and resulted in a new government in which two parties with a history of antagonism toward the European Union are set to take power.

The situation in Spain is different from Italy’s populist upheaval, though, since none of Spain’s main parties contest the country’s membership of the European single currency or promise an immigration clampdown. Rather, Mr. Rajoy’s demise is the result of a long-building corruption scandal that has tainted his conservative Popular Party and comes amid a territorial and constitutional crisis over Catalonia.

Mr. Rajoy congratulated Mr. Sánchez in his farewell address to lawmakers on Friday, just before the no-confidence vote. “It’s been an honor,” Mr. Rajoy said, adding that he had left Spain “better off than I had found it.”

“Hopefully my replacement will be able to say the same when his day comes,” he continued.

For the past two years, Mr. Rajoy has been at the helm of a minority government, reliant on the support of Spain’s fourth-largest political group, Ciudadanos, and attempting to fend off an independence drive in Catalonia.

Ultimately, corruption in Mr. Rajoy’s party, rather than his inability to resolve the Catalan conflict, proved his undoing.

Both the timing and the manner of his removal — in Parliament rather than in an election — were unexpected. Mr. Sánchez pounced on a court ruling last week that sentenced various business people and politicians, including a former treasurer of Mr. Rajoy’s party, to prison for operating a kickback scheme.

Pedro Sánchez is expected to replace Mr. Rajoy as prime minister as soon as this weekend. But his party has just 84 of the 350 seats in Parliament.CreditPool photo by Emilio Naranjo

Mr. Sánchez demanded a parliamentary vote of no confidence, and then managed to outflank opposition to his candidacy from Ciudadanos, which wanted a snap election.

To stay in office, Mr. Sánchez will need to maintain the support of the far-left Podemos party, as well as nationalist lawmakers from Catalonia and the Basque region.

The no-confidence vote follows one-and-a-half days of tense parliamentary debate, whose turning point came Thursday afternoon, when the Basque nationalists agreed to join Catalan separatist lawmakers in voting against Mr. Rajoy. That about-face came only a week after the same Basque lawmakers used their pivotal votes to approve Mr. Rajoy’s new national budget, which includes a generous financial deal for the Basques.

During the debate, Mr. Sánchez pledged to hold talks with the Catalan separatist politicians who have been at loggerheads with Mr. Rajoy for years. But he didn’t say how he planned to resolve a territorial conflict that has become more tense since Catalonia voted late last year to secede from Spain, a move that Mr. Rajoy blocked.

Mr. Sánchez’s expected takeover in Madrid coincides with the start of a new separatist administration in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, following the recent election of Quim Torra as regional president. To start a new chapter, Mr. Sánchez told lawmakers, Catalonia now needs “political solutions to a political crisis.”

The nomination of Mr. Sánchez as prime minister caps a remarkable comeback. Last year, he was unexpectedly re-elected to the leadership of his Socialist party, seven months after being ousted in a party revolt and abandoning his seat in Parliament.

During the parliamentary debate, Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciudadanos, repeatedly voiced his frustration at Mr. Rajoy for not resigning or calling a snap election. Mr. Rajoy was not in Parliament to listen, however, instead spending more than seven hours in a Madrid restaurant.

Mr. Rivera also accused Mr. Sánchez of taking office through the back door — without first getting elected by voters — and of forming what he called a “Frankenstein government,” reliant on far-left politicians and regional parties that want to break up Spain.

“I cannot understand, Mr. Sánchez, that you and your Socialist party have reached out and formed alliances with parties of this kind,” Mr. Rivera said in Parliament. “No political career is more important than Spain.”

Follow Raphael Minder on Twitter: @RaphaelMinder.