Spain’s Pedro Sanchez loses bid to be confirmed as prime minister, paving way for possible election in November

Sanchez’s Socialist party won an election in April but fell short of a majority

He has until mid-September to win Parliament’s backing, but the party has said it would not install him as PM if he failed to reach a coalition deal by July

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Spain’s caretaker prime minister Pedro Sanchez. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:41pm, 25 Jul 2019Updated: 3:42am, 26 Jul 2019

Spain’s parliament rejected Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez’s bid to be confirmed as prime minister on Thursday, putting the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy on the path to what could be its fourth national election in as many years.

Sanchez in theory has until mid-September to win parliament’s backing – but the Socialists said this month they would give up trying to install him if he failed to secure confirmation in July.

The Socialist party won an election in April but fell short of a majority. It needed the support of the far-left Unidas Podemos to be confirmed but the two parties failed to reach a deal on a coalition government.

“A deal wasn’t possible,” Sanchez told lawmakers, before adding: “I want to be Spain’s prime minister, but not at any price.”

Sanchez strongly criticised the way Podemos and its leader Pablo Iglesias had conducted the talks, but did not say what his next step would be.