Image copyright AFP Image caption Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party gained the backing of the Ciudadanos ("Citizens") party - and tacit Socialist support

Spain's parliament has voted to allow conservative leader Mariano Rajoy to lead a minority government after a 10-month political deadlock following inconclusive elections.

The endorsement came after Mr Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) gained the backing of the Ciudadanos ("Citizens") party and tacit support from the Socialists.

Socialist lawmakers are said to have been among the 68 abstentions.

The country had faced the prospect of a third general election inside a year.

But the Socialists forced out their leader, Pedro Sanchez, earlier this month after he rejected abstention.

Mr Rajoy has led a caretaker administration since losing his overall majority in an election last December. A repeat election in June failed to end the impasse but strengthened his hand.

The Socialists (commonly known by their Spanish abbreviation, the PSOE) came second on both occasions, their support eroded by radical leftist newcomers Podemos.

For decades, the PSOE and PP took turns in governing the country on their own but last year the popular vote split four ways - the new centrist Ciudadanos party came fourth.

Spain country profile

The PSOE has 85 seats to the 137 won by the PP in June.

Podemos's Ikea-style appeal to young voters

Resisting change in a dying Spanish village

Taking back Barcelona's apartments</s>Mariano Rajoy was re-elected as Prime Minister of Spain after his investiture was ratified by the Congress.

“With courage, strength and determination we managed to overcome many of the challenges we had to face in the last four years, and I’m sure we can do the same again,” he said after the result was announced on Saturday, Efe news reported.

The Popular Party leader needed to receive more votes in his favour than against, and the Socialist Party’s (PSOE) abstention meant he received enough support from the Congress members to be invested.

He received 170 votes in his favour, while 111 voted against his re-election and 68 abstained.

“I greatly appreciate all the Spanish people who voted for me and I promise I will govern well for everyone, whether they voted for me or not,” he added.

He said he had already spoken to King Felipe VI, who is currently attending the 25th Iberoamerican Summit in Colombia, and that they had decided that he is to be sworn in on Friday, after announcing who will form part of his government on Thursday.

Mr. Rajoy’s victory was made possible by PSOE’s decision to abstain instead of continuing to vote against him.

Former PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez announced on Saturday that he was resigning from the Congress because he profoundly disagreed with his party’s decision but did not want to go against the PSOE Federal Committee’s decision.

On October 1, he was forced to resign as party leader because he wanted to continue voting against Mr. Rajoy despite a push within the party to end the country’s political block and allow Mr. Rajoy to be re-elected.

On Thursday, a similar vote was held where Mr. Rajoy had to receive at least 176 votes in his favour to be invested, but PSOE had agreed to vote against him that day and abstain on Saturday, so his re-election was blocked.

During the vote on Saturday, thousands gathered on the streets outside the Congress building to protest what they considered to be an illegitimate investiture, as Mr. Rajoy did not receive a majority of votes from the Spanish people or Congress.

Spain had been embroiled in a political crisis for the last 10 months after two national elections yielded no conclusive results and several attempts at negotiating and forming a government failed.</s>Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took his oath Monday as leader of Spain's new conservative government — an administration that is in a minority in parliament and could have difficulty passing laws.

Rajoy's Popular Party is returning to power after two inconclusive elections left the country in a political limbo for 10 months. The deadlock ended when Rajoy won a confidence vote in Parliament at the weekend.

King Felipe VI presided at Rajoy's swearing-in ceremony at the royal palace. Rajoy is expected to name his Cabinet on Thursday.

The minority government's first challenge will be to pass a 2017 budget which must find some 5.5 billion euros ($6 billion) in cuts or tax hikes to meet a deficit target agreed with European Union authorities.

"The new government ... will be weak," Italian bank UniCredit said in an analysis, as tough negotiations with opposition parties lie ahead. "Therefore, it is hard to expect the adoption of major reforms like, for instance, a further consolidation of the banking system or a further overhaul of the labor law."</s>Spain's 10-month political deadlock may end as Parliament is expected to approve acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's bid to form a new minority government.

Rajoy needed a majority in the 350-seat Parliament during a first confidence vote Thursday but was rejected. Parliament holds a second vote Saturday in which he needs only more votes in favor than against.

He has the support of 170 lawmakers, 137 of them from his own party.

Rajoy's chances rest upon the rival Socialist party. It has agreed to abstain during Saturday's vote, but 11 members have said they will vote against him.

If elected, Rajoy likely will be sworn in before King Felipe VI on Sunday.

If a new government is not in place by Monday, a third round of elections will be called.</s>Mariano Rajoy was re-elected as Spain’s prime minister Saturday, ending a bitter period of political deadlock.

Members of the Spanish Parliament voted, 170-111, in favor of Rajoy, with 68 Socialist lawmakers abstaining. Rajoy is set to form a new conservative government in the coming week, after two inconclusive national elections and 10 months of stalemate.

The parliamentary vote took place two days before a deadline to avoid a third national election. That deadline played in Rajoy’s favor, leading to a revolt within the Socialist opposition, which has been leaderless all month.

Rajoy will lead a minority government with the weakest parliamentary support since Spain’s return to democracy four decades ago. But his re-election confirmed Rajoy as one of Spain’s great political survivors.

Protesters gathered outside Parliament before the vote. About 4,000 demonstrators held signs questioning the legitimacy of Rajoy’s re-election and denouncing his conservative Popular Party as corrupt.

Rajoy, 61, has stayed in charge of the party despite losing general elections to the Socialists in 2004 and 2008. He finally became prime minister on his third attempt, when his party won an absolute majority in 2011.

Since then, Rajoy has maintained a firm grip on the leadership of the Popular Party, even as his personal popularity has suffered amid high unemployment and a series of corruption scandals centering on his party.

In the coming weeks, Rajoy will present a budget for 2017 that will be the first major test of his ability to pass legislation without a parliamentary majority. He will be under pressure to make budgetary concessions to regional and left-wing parties, but his spending will be curtailed by deficit targets imposed by the European Union.

Because his coalition is weak, Rajoy is unlikely to complete another four-year mandate, said Antonio Barroso, a Spanish analyst at Teneo Intelligence, a London-based political consultancy. But if Rajoy can survive the first six months, he can still wield “the threat of dissolving Parliament,” Barroso added.

That threat could be enough to keep the Socialists in line, at least in the short term. Under Spain’s Constitution, a new national election cannot be called until May 3.</s>As politicians started arriving in Madrid’s Congress on Saturday for the confidence vote that would see Mariano Rajoy instated for another term as prime minister, protesters gathered near the parliament building.

Authorities had feared that the demonstration, called by a collection of leftist organisations against what they described as an “illegitimate” government which had the backing of the establishment but not the people, would be massive and lead to disturbances. Instead, the turnout was respectable without being overwhelming and there were no major incidents.

But it was nonetheless a warning to Rajoy that the coming legislature promises to be a rocky ride for him and his conservative Popular Party (PP).

As expected, Rajoy won the vote, with 170 votes in favour of his candidacy, 111 against and 68 abstentions, bringing to an end 10 months of political deadlock and averting a third general election in the space of a year.

The Galician now leads Spain’s weakest administration since the country’s return to democracy in the late 1970s and it is very different to his previous government. Between 2011 and 2015, the PP’s parliamentary majority – 186 seats out of a total 350 – allowed it to push through reforms without having to negotiate or compromise. Now, Rajoy’s party has only 137 seats.

“Spain needs more than just an investiture ceremony,” Rajoy told Congress on Saturday, as he acknowledged this new position of instability. “Don’t try to impose on me things I can’t accept.”

The prime minister’s priorities are clear. He wants to consolidate the fragile economic recovery, bring the stubbornly high unemployment rate down from 19 per cent, shore up the pensions system, overhaul the country’s regional financing and counter Catalonia’s bid to create an independent republic.

But this is not a coalition government and Congress will be hostile. Rajoy’s most obvious ally is Ciudadanos, the new liberal force which shares many of his right-of-centre economic instincts and which voted in favour of his candidacy on Saturday. But elsewhere there is little to suggest Rajoy will find governing easy. The other new party, Podemos, promises to provide an aggressive opposition from the left as it makes its legislative debut, despite its own power struggle at the top of the party.

Meanwhile, the Socialist Party, still parliament’s second force, is in disarray. Its reluctantly taken decision to abstain in the confidence vote was crucial in allowing Rajoy to continue governing. But the dilemma over that decision has divided it – 15 Socialist deputies broke party discipline by voting against Rajoy – and left it leaderless, with many of its voters bitterly disillusioned.

As part of their attempt to recover the credibility as a leftist force that they have lost with Saturday’s abstention, the Socialists are expected to keep their distance from Rajoy, whom in the past they have portrayed as plagued by corruption and obsessed with austerity.

“Neither you nor your project has our support,” Socialist spokesman Antonio Hernando told Rajoy shortly before abstaining to allow him to govern. “You’re not the prime minister Spain deserves.”

In the face of such resistance, Rajoy’s first task will be to get the 2017 budget Bill through parliament. With Brussels wanting Spain to make €5.5 billion in savings next year, that will not be easy.

“After four years of having a congressional majority, the new situation demands a severe change of style from the Popular Party,” noted La Vanguardia newspaper.

As of May 2017, Rajoy will be able to dissolve Congress and call an early election, should he find governing in this new landscape impossible. His secret weapon is that polls suggest his party is better positioned than any of his rivals should he decide to do so.</s>(CNN) Mariano Rajoy, Spain's acting prime minister and leader of its center-right Popular Party, was re-elected Saturday after winning a parliamentary vote.

The vote of 170-111 with 68 abstentions breaks a political deadlock and means Spain has its first fully functioning government since December, when a general election left no party with a majority.

The economy is once again Rajoy's major challenge.

The Brexit vote in the UK cast doubt on the future of the European Union. Spain's unemployment rate of 19.5% is the second highest in the EU after Greece.

But the economy has grown at a 3% rate despite having a caretaker government. Rajoy's austerity measures were a major factor in the turnaround.

After the December election Spain tried to put together a coalition government, but the process was complicated by the emergence of the left-wing Podemos and centrist Ciudadanos, as well as other regional parties.

Another general election was held in June but neither the PP nor the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Spain's two major political forces, were able to gather enough support from a parliament that now represents 12 parties.

If Rajoy, 61, had not won the parliamentary vote on Saturday a third general election would have been held in December.</s>This article is part of our premium content.

You have exceeded your 10 free articles for this month.

A subscription is required to access Times of Malta content from overseas. Register to get 10 free articles per month.

Subscribe to gain access to our premium content and services. Your subscription will also enable you to view all of the week's e-paper editions (both Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta), view exclusive content, have full access to our newspaper archive to download editions from 1930 to today, and access the website in full from overseas. All of this will also be available to you from our tablet and mobile apps.

Already have an account? Sign in here
The Spanish Parliament votes to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to lead a People's Party minority government after a ten month interregnum.