Spain's Socialists, racing to end weeks of political deadlock following inconclusive elections, announced Wednesday that the centrist Ciudadanos party has agreed to back their candidate for prime minister.

The deal reached between the two parties is a boost for Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez as he seeks enough support from lawmakers to become head of government in a parliamentary vote of confidence next week.

But it still leaves him short of the votes needed to be elected as prime minister.

"Obviously the deal implies a vote in favour of the investiture" of Sanchez, said Antonio Hernando, the lawmaker who is leading the Socialist team negotiating a potential coalition agreement with other parties.
He said the deal would be presented to party leaders Wednesday, then to the media and then signed in the lower house of parliament.

It includes major land and judicial reforms including changing the constitution to lift parliamentary immunity for lawmakers.

- Uphill struggle -

Spain has been mired in political deadlock for nearly 10 weeks since December elections resulted in a hung parliament split among four main parties -- none of which have enough seats to govern alone.
The ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) won but without an absolute majority, and leader Mariano Rajoy gave up attempts to form a government after he failed to get support from other parties fed up with corruption scandals plaguing his grouping and years of austerity.

As a result, King Felipe VI nominated runner-up Sanchez, whose Socialists won 89 seats out of 350, as prime ministerial candidate and he has been negotiating hard since then.

But even with Ciudadanos, Sanchez would still only have some 130 votes and would therefore need the backing of other parties -- a difficult task as all have conflicting agendas.

Anti-austerity party Podemos, an ally of Greece's Syriza, won 65 seats and would therefore be a valuable partner.

But the long-established Socialists are weary of joining forces with an upstart party born just two years ago out of anger over austerity, which ultimately seeks to supplant it.

The two parties are also deeply divided over Catalonia's independence movement.
Although it does not want to see Spain split, Podemos backs the idea of a Scotland-style referendum in the northeastern region. Sanchez, however, is resolutely against this.

And crucially, it refuses to enter a government that would also include Ciudadanos, pushing instead for a left-wing coalition with Podemos chief Pablo Iglesias as deputy prime minister.

The PP meanwhile has said it will vote against any government it does not lead.

As such, Sanchez still faces an uphill struggle to succeed next week.

- Business concerns -

Sanchez needs an absolute majority in the first vote of confidence, due to take place on March 2.

If that fails, another vote will be held 48 hours later, where Sanchez will only require a simple majority. The Socialists are hoping Podemos will abstain from that vote, which would push Sanchez through.

But if that is also unsuccessful, a two-month countdown begins from the date of the first vote, after which new elections will be called if no solution is found.

But as Spain emerges from a severe economic crisis, many say fresh elections would be a disaster for a country that needs stability, particularly as polls suggest the outcome of elections would by and large be the same as December.

On Tuesday, Spanish business leaders warned new polls would be an "incomprehensible failure."

"We support any formation of a stable political compromise," major business associations said in a joint statement.
Source :AFP