MADRID (Sputnik) – On Friday, Rajoy will now face a second round of voting having failed to clear the 176-vote mark in the first round earlier in the week. A simple majority of "yes" votes will serve to approve his candidacy in this round.
"We are convinced that the vote of this evening will fail again," Joan Tarda of the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) party said.
In June, Rajoy's People's Party won the most seats in the parliamentary election, with Spanish Socialist PSOE finishing second. None of the political forces have an absolute majority and thus cannot form a government on their own.
During Wednesday's first round of voting, 170 members of parliament, mainly from Rajoy's People's Party and the Citizens party, voted for, while 180, mainly from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the left-wing Podemos, were against.
