Madrid, 22 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Spain's right-wing populists failed on Wednesday in their attempt to topple the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

A no-confidence vote tabled by the Vox party was rejected in Madrid's lower house of parliament by a clear majority of 201 votes to 53, with 91 abstentions. The motion was only supported by Vox deputies, plus one other.

This was the second motion of no confidence brought by Vox against Sánchez in the current legislative period. The first attempt failed in October 2020.

When announcing the new attempt, Vox leader Santiago Abascal had declared that they could not stand idly by and watch Sánchez destroy the state.

Sánchez's Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) are governing in coalition with the left-wing alternative alliance United We Can (Unidas Podemos).

Vox accuses the coalition government of promoting illegal immigration and collaborating with separatist parties in the regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The conservative People's Party (PP) of opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo had announced before the vote that it would abstain.

The PP is a harsh critic of Sánchez, but rejected the Vox motion on the grounds that it would unnecessarily boost the left government in the current bumper election year.

Spain is due to hold local and regional elections on May 28 and parliamentary elections at the end of 2023.

Vox had surprisingly nominated a former Communist Party politician, Ramón Tamames, as its opposition candidate. The 89-year-old economist had not been politically active since 1989 and is not known to most younger Spaniards.

Wednesday's no-confidence vote was just the sixth in Spain since the end of Franco's dictatorship in 1975. Only one has been successful: in June 2018, Sánchez was able to topple Mariano Rajoy of the PP and take over as prime minister.