Madrid, 16 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) – The Spanish parliament narrowly voted on Thursday to confirm socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in office for a renewed four-year term almost four months after early elections.

Sánchez, head of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), secured 179 votes in favour with 171 against, following bitter opposition to his decision to make concessions to Catalan separatists to form a working coalition.

The 51-year-old has led the European Union's fourth largest economy since mid-2018.

The PSOE came second in the July 23 elections behind the conservative People's Party (PP) led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, but Feijóo's attempt to form a government was voted down by the lower house at the end of September.

Politicians from the PP and the far-right populist Vox have expressed vehement opposition to the formation of a left-wing government that depends on votes of the separatists.

PP spokespeople have accused Sánchez of "selling out Spain" in order to remain in power, buying votes in parliament by promising impunity and caving in to "blackmail from the separatists."

Photo: MIA Archive