Pedro Sanchez asked to form new government

AT 8.10pm on February 2, Patxi Lopez, speaker of the Spanish Congress announced that King Felipe had asked Pedro Sanchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) to form a new government.

Both Mr Sanchez and Mr Rajoy had met the King for the second time on February 2 and Mr Rajoy admitted that he had not been asked to form the government although he believed that the ideal solution would have been a three way coalition between the PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos.

Mr Sanchez now has the delicate job of trying to find sufficient partners in order to allow him to form a stable government although in a quickly removed tweet by the Zaragoza arm of Podemos, it had actually forecast the possible cabinet which would consist of seven PSOE candidates, five from Podemos, one affiliated to Podemos and one from the United Left.

There will now be a flurry of meetings and negotiations but it does now look as if there will be a relatively stable government in due course although with Pablo Iglesias as deputy prime minister, sparks could well fly.