The Plenary of the Congress of Deputies has given its confidence to Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government. The candidate has achieved the support of the absolute majority of the Chamber with 179 votes in favour and 171 votes against.
The President of Congress, Francina Armengol, will communicate the result of the vote to His Majesty The King so that he may appoint Sánchez as president, as determined by article 171.6 of the Rules of Procedure of Congress.
- The candidate obtains the confidence of the House with 179 votes in favour and 171 against.
- The President of Congress will communicate the result of the vote to His Majesty the King for the appointment of the head of the Executive.
This second day of the investiture session began with the speeches of the representatives of the groups that did not speak on Wednesday, with a time limit of 30 minutes for each one. Mertxe Aizpurua, from the Euskal Herria Bildu Group; Aitor Esteban, from the Basque Group (EAJ-PNV); and the deputies Néstor Rego (Bloque Nacionalista Galego), Cristina Valido (Coalición Canaria) and Alberto Catalán (Unión del Pueblo Navarro), members of the Mixed Group, took the floor. The debate was concluded by the spokesman for the Socialist Group, Patxi López.
After the speeches, the public vote was taken by roll-call. Members were named one by one, in alphabetical order, starting with José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, who was chosen at random. The vote was closed by the acting government, who are Members of Parliament, and the members of the Bureau, with the President in last place.
The members of the Socialist Group, the Plurinational SUMAR Group, the Republican Group, the Junts per Catalunya Group, the Euskal Herria Bildu Group, the Basque Group (EAJ-PNV) and the deputies of the Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) and Coalición Canaria, members of the Mixed Group, voted in favour of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez.
All together they have 179 votes, surpassing the absolute majority (176 MPs) needed for the investiture. The Popular Group, the VOX Group and the deputy of the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN), with a total of 171 votes, voted against.
Candidate’s nomination debate
The investiture debate, provided for in article 99 of the Constitution and regulated in articles 170 to 172 of the Rules of Procedure of the Congress of Deputies, began this Wednesday at 12:00 noon with the speech of the candidate for President of the Government, who presented the Government’s programme to the House without time limit and asked Congress for its confidence.
After Pedro Sánchez’s speech, the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, suspended the session. It resumed at 3:30 p.m. with the representatives of the parliamentary groups speaking, in order from largest to smallest, for a maximum of thirty minutes. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, from the Popular Group; Santiago Abascal, from the VOX Group; Yolanda Díaz, from the Plurinational SUMAR Group; Gabriel Rufián, from the Republican Group; and Miriam Nogueras, from the Junts de Catalunya Group, took the floor. Pedro Sánchez was able to respond to them one by one or in groups. The second intervention of the parliamentary groups was in accordance with the regulatory ten-minute time limit.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
