He Congress of Deputies The debate for the investiture of the PP candidate will begin this Tuesday, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The leader of the popular party will try to convince the chamber by intoning a speech that will begin at 12:00 p.m. to present his project for the country and with the subsequent response from the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups. The first vote will be held on Wednesday, in a second session that will begin at 9:00 a.m. For his investiture to succeed, Feijóo needs an absolute majority. If he fails, he will have another chance two days later, on Friday, September 29. In this one he would be better off getting more ‘yeses’ than ‘noes’.
But, What support does the popular candidate have? Feijóo won the elections with 137 seats, while the PSOE won 121 deputies. Their respective natural partners were very even: Vox remained the third force with 33 parliamentarians and Sumar debuted with 31 representatives. ERC and Junts tied at 7 seats, EH Bildu won 6 deputies, the PNV kept 5 parliamentarians and the BNG, Canarian Coalition and UPN got 1 seat each.
So Feijóo arrives at his investiture debate without enough votes to become President of the Government. He has the ‘yes’ of the PP and Vox parliamentarians, the sole representative of the Unión del Pueblo Navarro and the Canary Coalition. In total, 172, which means that four votes missing to become president of the Government. Hence, the PP encourages a ‘tamayazo’ so that four socialist deputies distance themselves from Pedro Sánchez and vote for him.
In the following interactive you can try all the possible combinations. To be elected president, the proposed candidate must obtain an absolute majority (at least 176 ‘yeses’) in the first vote or a simple majority (more ‘yeses’ than ‘noes’) in the second vote, which would be held 48 hours after the first.
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If Feijóo does not obtain the votes in the second vote, the King must call a second round of consultations to designate another candidate for the presidency of the Government. That is when Pedro Sánchez’s turn will foreseeably come. The key date will become November 27, the limit for one of the leaders to achieve the support of the majority of the Congress of Deputies. If that does not happen, the country will return to the polls on January 14.
But the PSOE candidate does not have it easy either because the sum with the coalition of Yolanda Diaz has stayed in 152 seats. They lack 24 deputies for an absolute majority, which means that the ‘yes’ of the parties that have supported them during the last legislature is not enough. With CKD, EH Bildu, PNV, BNG and Canarian Coalition reaches 172 deputies (the same as the sum of PP, Vox, CC and UPN), which is why the endorsement of Together for Catalonia.