MADRID (AP) - Spanish lawmakers have begun debating a motion of no confidence against conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, called in protest over the large number of corruption scandals involving his ruling Popular Party.

The motion to be voted on after the debate Tuesday was proposed by the far-left Podemos party but it is unlikely to get the required backing of an absolute majority of deputies needed to oust Rajoy.

Podemos, with 71 deputies in the 350-seat parliament, is presenting the party's ponytailed leader, Pablo Iglesias, as an alternative candidate to replace Rajoy.

Rajoy, who heads a minority government, has been dragged into the most damaging of the corruption cases involving the Popular Party, an alleged kickbacks-for-contracts scheme to finance party activities. He testifies as a witness in the case July 26. </s> MADRID — The Latest on moves to oust Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (all times local):

Spanish media are reporting that regional Basque nationalist lawmakers will back a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, bringing closer the conservative’s replacement by a Socialist-led government.

The five votes of the Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, are seen as key for Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez to win the vote in the lower house of the Spanish parliament. An absolute majority of 176 votes are required in the 350-seat chamber.

Spain’s public broadcaster TVE and leading El Pais newspaper quoted unnamed sources from the ruling Popular Party who had been informed by the Basques of their decision.

A PNV spokeswoman told The Associated Press she couldn’t confirm the reports.

Rajoy himself wasn’t in his seat in early Thursday afternoon, when the chamber resumed the no-confidence debate after a lunch break.

Spain’s opposition Socialists have tried to persuade smaller parties to support their bid to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government as they opened a tense parliamentary debate on their no-confidence motion.

Addressing lawmakers, Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez promised Thursday to uphold a recently negotiated national budget that includes substantial benefits for Basque nationalists. Voters from their legislations would allow Sanchez to oust Rajoy.

He urged the prime minister to step down after his ruling Popular Party was fined as beneficiary of a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme

The prime minister fought back. He told lawmakers it made no sense to seek a no-confidence vote based on the graft ruling because the National Court’s verdict “doesn’t include any criminal punishment” for his party.

The Spanish parliament’s lower house is debating whether to end Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s nearly eight years in power and replace him with the leader of the Socialist opposition.

Rajoy refused to resign after his conservative Popular Party was fined as beneficiary of a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme. In a damaging ruling last week, the court questioned Rajoy’s claim that he and other top officials were unaware of the party’s illegal accounting.

Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, who is leading the no-confidence vote against Rajoy, would instantly become the country’s prime minister if he wins 176 or more votes in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies on Friday.

His opening speech Thursday proposing an alternative government will be watched by other opposition lawmakers who are still undecided on whether to oust the government. </s> UNDER FIRE: Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (inset) is under pressure after the Gurtel ruling

THE centrist Ciudadanos party has demanded that Mariano Rajoy’s government hold national elections early as the Prime Minister faced the introduction of a no confidence motion today.

The call comes as the main opposition party, the left-leaning Partido Socialista (PSOE), said they had presented the motion in the Spanish parliament following a meeting this morning. Senior party members were discussing how to go forward in the wake of the Gurtel corruption scandal.

The probe saw Rajoy’s ruling conservative Partido Popular (PP) slapped with a more than €245,000 fine after Spain’s High Court ruled it profited from contract kickbacks between 1999 and 2006.

Rajoy said in a television interview yesterday that any case of corruption is “regrettable” and that understanding and dialogue would be needed going forward.

He said today the motion was bad for all Spaniards and that it would harm the country's economy, with it coming soon after the passage of the national budget.

"The motion is for the sole interest of Mr Sanchez and his place in Spanish politics. It is for him to become the leader of the govenment at the price of anyone and anything," he said.

Albert Rivera, the leader of Ciudadanos, wrote on Twitter his party supported a “democratic solution” which would come either from elections or a motion of censure (no confidence).

“We need a clean and strong government. The future is decided by the Spaniards,” he said.

Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the PSOE, said earlier today he had given the order for his party to lodge the motion in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of parliament.

The PSOE’s version of the motion puts forward Sanchez as a candidate for the premiership, which would see him unseat Rajoy if it is passed by a majority of lawmakers.

The party reportedly has the support of the far-left Podemos party, who issued their own call for a motion of no confidence earlier this week.

Ciudadanos, who currently backs the minority PP government on key votes in Parliament, have ruled out supporting the PSOE's motion. Their backing is a deciding factor in tipping the balance in favour of it passing.

The party's General Secretary Jose Manuel Villegas said his party had instead demanded Roajoy call early elections.

Under the Spanish Constitution’s Article 115 this would be impossible if a motion of no confidence were active. </s> Spain’s Socialist opposition is challenging Mariano Rajoy’s government by filing for a vote of no confidence after judges ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

A party spokeswoman who wasn’t authorized to be named in media reports confirmed the decision on Friday, one day after the National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, among other crimes.

The judges issued prison sentences totaling 351 years and fined the conservative PP 245,000 euros (US$ 287,000).

The Socialists’ challenge will push the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, which has until now supported the prime minister’s minority government in parliament, to make a decision whether to back the vote. The anti-establishment Podemos party has already said it will vote to sack Rajoy. </s> 'Spain’s biggest opposition party, the Socialists, filed a no-confidence motion on Friday against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after his conservative Popular Party was found guilty of benefiting from illegal funds in a mega graft trial.

The motion was filed in Spain's 350-seat lower house of parliament, a Socialist party spokesman told AFP just as Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez began an emergency meeting of the party's federal committee to discuss the parliamentary vote seeking Rajoy's ouster.

To succeed, it will need the support of an absolute majority of 176 lawmakers, a difficult task as opposition parties are deeply divided.

While far-left party Podemos has already called for a no-confidence vote, the motion will need the unlikely support of centrist party Ciudadanos, Rajoy's allies in parliament, or that of several tiny regional parties, including Catalan separatist parties.

Sanchez has in recent months clashed with the Catalan separatist parties over their independence push which has violated Spain's constitution.

In Spain's deeply fragmented parliament, the Socialists and Podemos do not have the votes on their own to defeat Rajoy, whose Popular Party (PP) lost its absolute majority in parlaiment over two years ago.

Spain's National Court said Thursday it had uncovered a vast system of bribes given to former Popular Party (PP) officials in exchange for lucrative public contracts between 1999 and 2005 in various regions including Madrid.

The court sentenced 29 people in jail for a total of 351 years for corruption, embezzlement and money laundering in the so-called Gurtel trial, named after the code name of the police investigation.

The PP itself was not on trial for direct involvement in the scheme but was found to have benefited from funds obtained illegally.

It is the first time that a ruling party in Spain has been found guilty in court, and the PP was ordered to pay back 245,000 euros ($290,000).

"Devastating sentence," headlined Catalan daily newspaper El Periodico on Friday while top-selling daily El Pais said in an editorial that "there is no precedent in democratic Spain for such a blow".

The court ruling "badly affects the credibility of a party that has ruled this country between 1996 and 2004 and again from 2011."

The case was just one of many graft scandals to have hit the PP over the years, in a country where corruption cases are widespread.

The graft scandals have taken their toll on the PP.

The party has 24 percent support according to a poll by Sociological Research Center (CIS) published earlier this month, down from 33 percent at the last genral election in June 2016, giving it just a slim lead over Ciudadanos in first place. </s> Spain's Socialist opposition is challenging Mariano Rajoy's government by filing for a vote of no confidence after judges ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

A party spokeswoman who wasn't authorized to be named in media reports confirmed the decision on Friday, one day after the National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, among other crimes.

The judges issued prison sentences totaling 351 years and fined the conservative PP 245,000 euros (US$ 287,000).

The Socialists' challenge will push the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, which has until now supported the prime minister's minority government in parliament, to make a decision whether to back the vote. The anti-establishment Podemos party has already said it will vote to sack Rajoy. </s> MADRID: Spain's parliament on Tuesday began to debate a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after corruption scandals linked to his ruling People's Party.

The motion, filed by anti-austerity party Podemos, is not expected to win the support of the absolute majority of lawmakers needed to force out Rajoy, who won re-election last year and leads a minority government.

Podemos, which took around a fifth of the vote in last year's two elections, says the motion is a rally against the PP's alleged use of public coffers and institutions to defend its own interests to the detriment of the electorate.

"Spain is fed up with your theft, and democracy demands a change," Podemos's parliamentary speaker, Irene Montero, told lawmakers.

"Corruption has a headquarters and it is at Genova 13," she said, referring to the address of the PP's party base in Madrid.

Dozens of PP members - including former economy minister and IMF chief Rodrigo Rato - have been implicated in graft cases, which opposition parties say shows entrenched corruption.

Rajoy has been called to testify as a witness at a trial of PP members including former party treasurer Luis Barcenas on July 26 following a long investigation into an alleged party slush fund. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The PP denies that any senior party officials were involved in cases of corruption. It says only a tiny number of its politicians are corrupt and that it is tackling the problem.

The no-confidence vote is expected to be held on Wednesday.

The vote is a direct challenge to the Socialist party, whose place in Spanish politics as the traditional left-wing opposition Podemos hopes to seize. The Socialists enabled Rajoy's re-election last October after 10 months of deadlock by abstaining in a parliamentary vote. </s> Spain's socialist party on Friday said it would put forward a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a graft case involving members of his People's Party.

MADRID: Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was threatened with two separate no-confidence motions on Friday, after a graft trial involving members of his party in which a judge questioned the credibility of his testimony.

The opposition Socialists presented their motion to parliament, while the centre-right Ciudadanos - Rajoy's former ally - issued him with an ultimatum.

"If Rajoy does not call snap elections we would be ready to put forward (our own) motion of no confidence in order to hold elections," Jose Manuel Villegas, a senior member of Ciudadanos, told a news conference.

Twenty-nine people related to Rajoy's People's Party (PP), including a former treasurer and other senior members, were convicted on Thursday of offences including falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. They were sentenced to a combined 351 years behind bars.

The case, which relates to the use of a slush fund by the Conservatives in the 1990s and early 2000s to illegally finance campaigns, has plagued Rajoy since he came to power in 2011. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Rajoy became the first sitting prime minister in Spain to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness in the case last year, prompting calls for him to resign.

In his ruling, the judge said there was evidence the party ran a slush fund for many years and that the credibility of Rajoy's testimony denying it "should be questioned".

"(His) testimony does not appear as plausible enough to refute the strong evidence showing the existence of a slush fund in the party," the judge said.

Rajoy was already under fire for his handling of the secession crisis in Catalonia, with many voters turning away from the PP to Ciudadanos.

Hours before the court ruling was made public on Thursday, Rajoy suggested he would run for a third term in an election due by mid-2020, but political observers said he was now likely to face an internal challenge in his party.

Ciudadanos helped the PP pass this year's budget bill as recently as Wednesday.

"It is clear that yesterday's ruling marks a tipping point in our relationship with the governing party," Villegas told COPE radio on Friday.

"The ruling is serious enough for us to sit down, reflect and take decisions." </s> A motion of no confidence has been passed in Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy following a corruption scandal.

It passed by 180 votes to 169 with one abstention.

He is the first Spanish prime minister to lose such a vote since Spain transitioned to democracy in 1977.

Deputies were asked individually in the lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies, whether or not they supported the motion on Friday morning.

This was done in an individual roll-call of deputies.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, bottom right, waves as members of his party applaud him during the second day of a motion of no confidence session at the Spanish parliament in Madrid | Image: Francisco Seco/AP/Press Association Images

This means Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the opposition PSOE party, is the new prime minister.

Mr Sanchez (46) is expected to take office by Monday, after King Felipe VI swears him in.

He is also expected to appoint his cabinet next week.

Mr Sanchez has already committed to respecting a budget passed by Mr Rajoy.

He has also promised to start talks with the Catalans over their bid for independence, but said he will not give them another referendum.

His party has a narrow majority in the 350-seat lower house.

Pedro Sánchez smiles at the start of the second day of a motion of no confidence session at the Spanish parliament in Madrid | Image: Francisco Seco/AP/Press Association Images

Mr Rajoy told the Spanish parliament he was proud of his record.

"It has been an honour to leave Spain better than I found it. Thank you to all Spaniards and good luck," he said.

The vote of no-confidence came after 29 former members of his conservative Popular Party were convicted of corruption last week.

The Spanish National Court found bribes were offered to former officials in exchange for public contracts.

The party also received a fine as a beneficiary of the kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.
The opposition Socialist Workers' Party presents a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy following the publication of the sentence in the Gürtel corruption scandal, which involved the ruling PP.