Even Mr Rajoy can predict the result of the vote of confidence in him

By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 30 Aug 2016 • 14:46

AS far as Spanish politics is concerned, August 30 could either be a big day or a complete waste of time.

Having signed an agreement with Ciudadanos, acting PM Rajoy will know that he won’t suffer an ignominious defeat when he starts his ‘election speech’ but despite the PP and the press pushing the leader of main opposition party PSOE to at least abstain from the confidence vote, there appears little likelihood of this and even Rajoy seems to be going through the motions rather than actually expecting to win the vote.

Assuming that he doesn’t sail through the vote and is rejected, then the opposition parties may try to form a government, assuming the king agrees, but this time the PP will be able to vote them down so it really does look like the start of ‘the long and winding road’ to a third election which may take place on December 25.

Cynics suggest that the PP is quite content with the current situation, as it is able to pass certain legislation under emergency regulations which can bypass the opposition parties and the interim government can still whine to the EU that their inability to manage the budget is the fault of the lack of a majority government.

One bit of good news for him however is that Twitter has produced a Rajoy emoji which will be used all of this week whilst one bit of good news for parliamentarians is that late in the previous week, they managed to agree who should sit where!