So, it's another general election ...

[Perikles]

Feel sorry for the King of Spain this week. The poor sod is constitutionally obliged to try and arrange for one bunch of hooligans to form a government. To this end, he has scheduled discussions with all the heads of political parties, and is meeting them all, one by one. That makes 19 meetings with politicians lasting all week  . I'd rather talk to my chickens. 

[Janet]

and it has to be one by one because none of the buggers will talk to each other. And they wonder why some look back fondly at Franco's days ...

[Janet]

As I posted HERE the other day,

Spain is already struggling politically in the face of a prospective third general election, and the Socialists are under pressure nationally to allow the Partido Popular to form a minority government to avoid that outcome, pressure which has been increased by recent regional elections in northern Spain in which the PSOE vote slipped. And within the Socialists themselves, party leader Pedro Sanchez is under siege from the PSOE's own grandees, including former PM Felipe González, for holding out for an election in which the party is likely to do even worse than it did on the last two occasions

And now, PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez has resigned. It's so reminiscent of what happened in the UK with Labour, but the other day 17 of the 38 PSOE executive committee resigned in an attempt to force him out ... their resignations actually meant that the Executive Committee wasn't quorate, and so it, and therefore the party, couldn't function. A major meeting was called, and after losing a vote of confidence in his leadership, Sánchez fell on his sword.

The party will now have a caretaker leader, probably Susana Díaz - a powerful PSOE leader in Andalusia - while they choose their next leader, but more importantly, the centre has got control of the party back ... and are likely to abstain in a vote for Rajoy to form a minority government. This will almost certainly mean a PP government, and the avoidance of a third general election.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

 

Chrismas is saved!!!!