Spain's Congress of Deputies approved on Tuesday, in a second ballot, the candidacy of Pedro Sanchez for Prime Minister.
To be elected in the first round of voting, which took place on Sunday, the candidate for the post of head of the Cabinet needed to get the support of the absolute majority of deputies, that is, a minimum of 176 out of 350. Since this did not happen, two days later the second vote took place in Congress, during which Sanchez received the support of the majority of parliamentarians.
Earlier, Sanchez, whose PSOE party won 120 of the Spanish parliament’s 350 seats in a November election, had proposed to form a coalition government with the Unidas Podemos party, who won a further 35 seats, and a number of other marginal parties.
During the course of 2019, Spain has been in a protracted political crisis. Two snap parliamentary elections were called in April and November of this year, with both elections failing to return a majority. Sanchez has been acting prime minister since the April election.