Feijóo fails to achieve his goal in the first investiture vote in the Congress of Deputies

The president of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, failed to win the post of President of the Spanish government after the first investiture vote in the Spanish Congress of Deputies on Wednesday, after failing to achieve an absolute majority in the Spanish lower house.  

This result was expected because Alberto Núñez-Feijóo only had the votes of the VOX party, with 33 MPs, and two other seats, those of Coalición Canaria and Unión del Pueblo Navarro, which were insufficient to achieve an absolute majority. Of the 350 votes cast, 172 were in favour of the Popular candidate and 178 against.

Therefore, there were no surprises and now on Friday the second vote will have to be held, in which the PP leader would only need to obtain a simple majority of more yeses than noes, although it is also expected that he will not be able to triumph in this vote, as the result of the first round was 172-178 against and is expected to be maintained.  

Subsequently, the next step would be a new round of consultations by King Felipe VI to propose another candidate, which in this case would be Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and acting President of the Government, who came second after Feijóo in the last general election on 23 July, when the leader of the PP was the most voted. Therefore, the next opportunity to achieve the investiture would be for the current president, Pedro Sánchez, who argues that he possesses the necessary support.  

Alberto Núñez-Feijóo was unable to convince the deputies of the House who were unhappy with the political association between the PP and VOX, considered by many sectors as a far-right party, and saw his objective frustrated despite having won the general elections. "We are here so that the election result is not erased. We are here so that 8 million voters are not cornered or silenced", Feijóo said before the investiture vote took place. 

Therefore, after being proposed more than a month ago by the head of state, King Felipe VI, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo has not managed to obtain the necessary parliamentary support to obtain an absolute majority in the first investiture vote, nor is he expected to surprise and emerge victorious in the second vote scheduled for Friday.  

If he fails on Friday, the King of Spain will open a new round of consultations between the parliamentary groups to propose another candidate, in this case Pedro Sánchez, who has indicated that he has more support and that Feijóo's conservative candidacy does not have the necessary backing. The PSOE's top leader already argued at the time that the majority of voters cast their ballots in the progressive direction, voting mostly for left-wing and centre-left political parties.

From the centre-right bloc represented by Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, a sense of State was advocated in order to receive the necessary support, considering that Pedro Sánchez's candidacy will be supported mainly by nationalist and pro-independence parties that endanger the stability, unity and future of the Spanish State. In his speech, the leader of the PP focused his speech on stressing that if he ends up being president there will be no amnesty for those prosecuted for the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia in 2017, nor a referendum on self-determination agreed with the Spanish State, accusing Pedro Sánchez of being willing to give in on everything to the pro-independence supporters in order to achieve the Presidency of the Government.  

Despite the fact that Pedro Sánchez has some support, some of the groups that voted for the Socialists to win the presidency of Congress in August already warned the acting Prime Minister that he would not have it guaranteed if he opts for the investiture, depending on the negotiations that are carried out to guarantee this support, which depends above all on certain demands from the nationalists and pro-independence supporters.  

If in two months' time no candidate manages to be invested, with 27 November as the deadline, Spain would be heading for new general elections, which would have to be held as early as January.