MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s conservative leader Mariano Rajoy was on course to secure a second term in power for his People’s Party (PP) on Sunday after his Socialist rivals agreed to abstain in a looming confidence vote, ending 10 months of political deadlock.

Spain's acting Prime Minister and People's Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy attends a military parade marking Spain's National Day in Madrid, Spain October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Spain has been stuck in political limbo following national elections in December and June which left no single party with a majority, paralyzing institutions and threatening to derail an economic recovery.

With a third ballot on the cards the center-left Socialists, traditional opponents of the PP, ceded ground on Sunday in an extraordinary, internal party meeting to choose between a third general election or allowing Rajoy to govern.

Senior party members voted by 139 to 96 in favor of abstaining in a parliamentary confidence vote to be held this week.

Rajoy’s minority government will have to contend with a hostile, deeply fragmented parliament over the next four years, opening up a fresh source of political instability for Spain.

His prime task will be to keep on track an economic rebound after years of recession, while cutting costs to meet stringent deficit targets.

December’s election broke the stable two-party system that has ruled Spain since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in the 1970s, and a re-run in June delivered a similar result as new parties grabbed millions of votes in the wake of a deep recession.

Rajoy’s PP beat the Socialists in both elections, followed by the upstart Podemos (“We Can”) and Ciudadanos (“Ciudadanos”) parties, which together secured close to a third of parliamentary seats.

To govern, Rajoy needed sufficient support or an abstention by his rivals in a confidence vote. That two-stage ballot will now take place this week, with the second vote due on Saturday or Sunday.

The Socialists had blocked Rajoy’s reelection under their former leader Pedro Sanchez, a stance that would have forced Spain into its third election in a year.

Sanchez was forced to resign earlier this month by his party, who feared the Socialists would suffer an electoral bloodbath if they triggered a fresh poll.

Defending the vote, Socialist interim party head Javier Fernandez said the result was the least bad of the two options.

“We went to win the elections, but since that didn’t happen, we need that there is a government to act as the opposition,” he said.

TOUGH FOUR YEARS

Rajoy enjoyed an absolute majority in parliament after taking power from the Socialists in 2012, but his popularity was eroded by austerity measures and a series of corruption scandals that tainted the PP.

Rajoy’s PP has 137 seats in the 350-strong lower house of parliament, the rest split between the now-leaderless Socialists, the anti-austerity Podemos and market friendly Ciudadanos.

Those divisions will complicate his stewardship of an economy that is straining to cut one the highest public deficits in Europe and to shrink its public debt, which has almost tripled since the start of the crisis.

First on an expanding to-do list for the new government will be updating the emergency 2017 budget to better reflect the deficit targets set by Brussels. Rajoy needs to find at least 5 billion euros in extra revenues or spending cuts.</s>Spain's Socialists cleared the way on Sunday for the conservative People's Party (PP) to be sworn in to government, ending a 10-month political deadlock that has paralyzed institutions and threatened to derail an economic recovery.

Senior members of the center-left party voted 139 in favor, versus 96 against, of abstaining in a new confidence vote due this coming week which would grant conservative acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy a second term in office.</s>MADRID -- Spain's Socialist party voted Sunday to stop blocking the conservative Popular Party from forming a minority government, setting the stage to end the country's nearly 10-month political impasse.

Members of the Socialists' federal committee announced after a meeting that they would abstain from voting against acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy during a confidence vote in the nation's parliament.

The committee voted 139 to 96 in favor of the abstention, a decision that should prevent a third election.

Two inconclusive elections since December have left Rajoy in charge of a caretaker government. His Popular Party won both elections, but not enough seats to form a majority in the parliament.

Rajoy has the support of 170 lawmakers in the 350-seat national parliament -- 137 of them from his own party -- but he needs other parties' votes or abstentions if he is to form a government.

He needs just 11 abstentions from the socialists to reach the threshold that would allow him to do that.

Javier Fernandez, who took over as temporary Socialist leader after the weekend resignation of Pedro Sanchez, said on Sunday that the party would "show its total rejection for Popular Party policies" on the first vote by voting no during the confidence vote, but would abstain on the second tally, allowing Rajoy to govern.

Spain has been led for decades by either the conservatives or the socialists and has never had a coalition government.

The Socialist party remained bitterly divided on the issue. Supporters of the abstention claimed a third election could be disastrous for the party, which suffered its worst-ever results in an election in June.

Detractors of the abstention said the decision would further alienate the party's supporters.

Scores of protesters defied constant rains Sunday to gather outside the party's headquarters, saying they felt betrayed by the federal committee's decision.

Miquel Iceta, the leader of the party's Catalan faction, has said its seven deputies will vote against Rajoy despite the committee's plans.

The newcomer, leftist Podemos party has said it hopes to profit from the Socialists' surrender to become the leading opposition party.</s>MADRID — Spain's Socialist party is meeting to decide whether to help end the country's nearly 10-month political impasse and deliver another term to acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Two inconclusive elections since last December have left Rajoy in charge of a caretaker government. Rajoy's conservative Popular Party won both elections but did not win enough seats to form a majority in Parliament.

The Socialists will decide at their meeting Sunday on whether to allow Rajoy and his Popular Party to lead the government by abstaining from voting against him during a confidence vote in Parliament. That would prevent a third election.

The party has been bitterly divided over the issue but there are been growing signs it may yield in the end.</s>MADRID — Spain's King Felipe VI is starting talks with political party leaders before he is expected to call on conservative acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to try to form a government and end a near 10-month political deadlock.

Rajoy has all but secured the position after the rival Socialist party voted Sunday to end its stance of rejecting his bid and abstain in a parliamentary vote expected soon.

Two inconclusive elections since last December have left Rajoy in charge of a caretaker government. His Popular Party won both elections, but lacks a majority in Parliament and needs outside backing to form a minority government.

Felipe began the meetings Monday and will finish the round Tuesday with Rajoy. Barring a major upset, Rajoy will be elected premier within a week.</s>Spain’s Socialist Party will help conservative Mariano Rajoy form a government in an upcoming investiture vote, signalling the end of 10 months of unprecedented political stalemate and a possible power shift on the country’s left.

The party held a federal committee meeting in Madrid on Sunday exclusively to decide whether to ease acting prime minister Mr Rajoy’s continuation as head of government by abstaining in his investiture, which is due to take place by October 31st.

The alternative would have been to continue to block Mr Rajoy, of the Popular Party (PP), triggering a third general election in the space of a year.

A total of 139 Socialist delegates voted in favour of the motion to abstain – and support Mr Rajoy – while 96 voted against.

Although the liberals of Ciudadanos have already said they will also back him, his new administration will be in a much weaker position than it was between 2011 and 2015, when the PP governed with a majority.

The dilemma over whether to back Mr Rajoy or block him has become increasingly divisive for the Socialists. Earlier this month, a chaotic internal revolt overthrew party leader Pedro Sánchez, in great part due to his insistence on opposing Mr Rajoy’s continuation as prime minister.

Last week, the Socialists’ caretaker leader, Javier Fernández, had warned: “There’s a choice: abstention or third elections . . . Neither of the two options is good.” Now the party must face the consequences of its decision. Polls have shown that choosing the abstention option would have been more acceptable among Socialist voters several months ago. Now, however, it is deeply unpopular.

The Socialists’ fear of being seen to betray their grassroots supporters has been compounded by a litany of scandals affecting Rajoy’s PP which have come to a head in recent weeks.

The trial of dozens of politicians and businesspeople linked to the “Gürtel” cash-for-contracts network recently began in the high court, with many PP politicians facing charges. In addition, the PP’s former economy minister and IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato has been on trial for allegedly overseeing and enjoying a system of lavish perks for executives of the lender Bankia, when he was its chairman.

Meanwhile, interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz has been facing pressure to resign ever since audio recordings emerged of him apparently discussing the fabrication of corruption cases with which to smear Catalan separatist leaders.

These scandals and Mr Rajoy’s implementation of a severe austerity programme made him toxic in the view of a number of Socialist leaders and the 96 delegates who voted against abstaining show how the party remains split on the issue.

“We think our position would be severely compromised by our abstention,” said Miquel Iceta, leader of the Catalan Socialists during Sunday’s federal committee. He led his regional arm of the party in voting against abstention.

But concerns about how the Spanish economy would fare if the political uncertainty continued appear to have been a factor in persuading the party to end the stasis, as were worries about the need to counter Catalonia’s drive towards independence.

However, a more pressing issue is likely to have been that polls suggested the party would have performed poorly if it had chosen to head into another election. With the more stridently leftist Podemos close on the Socialists’ heels in the last election, there was the possibility that it would have overtaken them.

“With the Socialists’ decision a weak, short-lived government is born,” tweeted Íñigo Errejón, deputy leader of Podemos. “Before, they took it in turns [to govern], now they need each other. We will be the alternative.”

Political writer Josep Ramoneda told The Irish Times that Mr Errejón could be right. “With the Socialists getting into bed with the PP, Podemos now has a great opportunity to take control of the political left,” he said. The Socialists, he added, are in desperate need of an ideological and strategic overhaul in order to remain competitive.

Spain’s political crisis began following the general election of December 2015, as new arrivals Podemos and Ciudadanos blew open a political landscape which the PP and Socialists had dominated for 3½ decades.

“Last year was one in which huge hopes of change were raised,” said Mr Ramoneda. “And 2016 has so far been a year in which those hopes have been frustrated. We’re still in a situation of great instability.”</s>MADRID — Spain's King Felipe VI is expected to call on conservative acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to try to form a government after two days of talks with political party leaders aimed at ending 10 months of political deadlock.

The king meets with Rajoy on Tuesday afternoon, following which Parliament is expected to announce the date for the first of two likely investiture votes this week.

Two inconclusive elections since last December have left Rajoy running a caretaker government. His Popular Party won both elections, but lacks a parliamentary majority and needs outside support to form a minority government.

Rajoy has all but secured his candidacy's success following the rival Socialist party's decision to no longer reject his bid and abstain in a second parliamentary vote.
The Socialist Workers' Party, following the party's 139–96 vote approving this action, say they will abstain from voting against acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy when he puts his People's Party coalition government to parliament this week, thereby ending the 10-month deadlock.