Lawmakers in Madrid have rejected caretaker leader Pedro Sanchez's bid to be reappointed prime minister, nearly two months after parliamentary elections. The Socialist leader will make a second attempt on Tuesday.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/M. Fernandez
Advertisement
Spain's interim prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, failed on Sunday to win the support of the country's parliament to form a left-wing coalition government.
Sanchez fell 10 votes short of the 176 votes needed to secure an absolute majority in the 350-seat assembly, receiving just 166 in favor, with 165 against and 18 abstentions. One lawmaker did not attend the vote.
Sanchez will have a second chance on Tuesday, when the bar for success will be lowered to a simple majority and he will only need more votes in favor of his reelection than against it.
Spain has been without a proper government for most of the past year after two inconclusive elections in April and November.
Catalans, Galicians, Basques and more: Spain's many nationalities
With a strong identity of its own, Catalonia is now at the center of a tug-of-war between the central government and autonomous authorities. To differing degrees, various parts of Spain have strong national self-images.
Image: Reuters/J. Nazca
A Roman province
The Romans had several provinces with Hispania in their names on the Iberian Peninsula. Modern Spain also encompasses such wide cultural diversity that the Spanish themselves speak of Las Espanas (The Spains). The country in its present form was never united under a single ruler until after the 1702-14 War of the Spanish Succession.
Image: picture-alliance/Prisma Archivo
A nation of regions
Spanish nationalism is strong in many regions, with former kingdoms such as Aragon largely content to be recognized as part of the Spanish nation-state. Asturias has its own language, but takes pride in its role as the birthplace of the Reconquista, or the taking back of Iberia from the Moors. Spanish nationalism was evident in recent years in Madrid in response to Catalonia's referendum.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Soriano
Bloodied fingers
Catalonia has long battled for independence. Its flag, the Senyera, is very similar to that of Aragon, to which it once belonged. The design is fabled to represent four bloodied fingers of Count Wilfred the Hairy being passed over a gold shield. Catalans were fairly happy with their situation until a court struck down the region's statute of autonomy in 2006 and support for independence grew.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/M. Oesterle
No great appetite
Valencianismo, or Valencian nationalism, sprang out of the Renaixenca, an early-19th-century rebirth of the Catalan language, of which Valencian is just one variant. However, nationalist sentiment is not widespread in the region, which is home to Spain's Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. The Valencian Nationalist Bloc usually gets about 4 percent of the vote for the autonomous parliament.
Image: picture-alliance/Gtresonline
Other Catalan territories
The Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera — all speak variants of Catalan. Though there is a greater nationalist feeling on the islands than in Valencia, it is still more subdued than in Catalonia. Meanwhile, La Franja, a strip of Catalan-speaking land in Aragon, was split by the independence referendum, though most residents do not advocate self-determination for themselves.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Seeger
The Basque Country
Because of terror attacks by the ETA militant group, Basque separatists used to make the headlines far more often than Catalonia's independence movement. Separatists consider the Basque Country in France and Spain and the region of Navarre to be one nation. About a third of people want full independence, but most want more autonomy. A referendum proposed in 2008 was ruled illegal.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Rivas
The Galician cause
Although it was the birthplace of the centralist dictator Francisco Franco, Galicia has the strongest tradition of separatism after Catalonia and the Basque Country. Even Spain's mainstream national parties display a streak of Galicianism in the region. Perhaps as a result, starkly nationalist parties receive a lower share of the regional vote.
The Arabic name al-Andalus originally refers to the areas of the Iberian Peninsula that were under Moorish rule for 760 years. As Christians reconquered territories, the area known as Andalusia shrank southwards. Most Andalusians voted for autonomy after Franco died in 1975, but there is little appetite for full independence.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/K. Thomas
8 images1 | 8
Tight vote
Sanchez's center-left Socialists won the repeat November 10 polls but were weakened, taking 120 seats — three fewer than in April.
He struck a deal with hard-left party Podemos, which won 35 seats, to form what would be the first post-dictatorship coalition government in Spain.
The two parties' combined total of 155 seats, however, still fell short of a majority, prompting Sanchez to reach out and secure the support or abstention of several smaller regional parties, including the Catalan separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC).
In a sign of how close Tuesday's race could be, a member of the regional party Coalicion Canaria, Ana Oramas, voted against Sanchez instead of abstaining as her party had agreed.
The Spanish capital's streets were closed to traffic on Sunday so flocks of sheep could migrate to southern pastures. A 600-year-old agreement allows farmers to pay a tiny fee to cut through the bustling city.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/B. Akbulut
Is this shepherd boy lost?
Hundreds of years ago, northern Spanish farmers would have traversed a much smaller, quainter Madrid as they herded their flocks of sheep toward the warmer winter meadows in the south. An agreement dating back to 1418 allows them to cross the city for a small fee. On Sunday, the bustling streets came to a standstill so the sheep could pass through.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/B. Akbulut
That'll be 50 maravedies, please!
The medieval tradition, giving farmers a rite of passage through the city, was renewed in 1994 with an annual festival that has become a major attraction for locals and tourists alike. Shepherds stop at the town hall to pay 50 "maravedies" — copper coins first minted in the 11th century — as payment for the crossing.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. del Pozo
Flock gets the full city tour
The Trashumancia sheep parade starts in the Casa de Campo, a former royal hunting ground that is now Madrid's largest park, then makes its way through the Puerta del Sol — the main square -— and finally past the Bank of Spain's headquarters.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/B. Akbulut
Innocent as a lamb
The passage for the sheep was a timely reminder of the urban sprawl that threatens ancient grazing and migration rights. Much of Madrid was once undeveloped countryside, with woodland and grazing space that would have allowed a simpler passage for the flock.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. del Pozo
Journey took two shakes of lamb's tail
Sunday's marching of around 2,000 sheep and goats was accompanied by musicians and dancers dressed in regional costumes that have been worn by rural workers for centuries.