The King of Spain, Felipe VI, on Tuesday instructed the outgoing President of the Socialist government, Pedro Sánchez, to present his candidacy to Parliament to try to be invested again at the head of the Executive, according to the President of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol.
"His Majesty the King", who consulted the representatives of the different political parties on Monday, "has informed me of his decision to propose Mr Pedro Sánchez as candidate for the Presidency of the Government", Armengol said in a brief televised statement.
To win the confidence of the deputies, Sánchez will have to count on the necessary support of the Catalan pro-independence supporters, who are demanding in return a controversial amnesty for separatists with legal cases for the attempt to secede from Catalonia in 2017, and even progress towards a referendum on self-determination.
The outgoing head of government, in power since 2018, will have until 27 November to obtain parliamentary backing. If he fails to do so, elections will automatically be called for mid-January.
His rival, the conservative Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who won the 23 July legislative elections, albeit without a viable majority, failed last week when a majority of MPs rejected his bid to be sworn in.
