page_title: 2015–2016 Spanish government formation
section_title: First contacts
hierarchical_section_title: 2015–2016 Spanish government formation / Second formation round (June–October 2016) / Post-2016 election developments / First contacts
caption_attribution_description: Español: Pedro Sánchez y Mariano Rajoy, en la constitución del Congreso, el 19 de julio de 2016.
context_page_description: Attempts to form a government in Spain followed the inconclusive Spanish general election of 20 December 2015, which failed to deliver an overall majority for any political party. As a result, the previous cabinet headed by Mariano Rajoy was formed to remain in a caretaker capacity until the election of a new government.
  After a series of inconclusive inter-party negotiations, Pedro Sánchez tried and failed to pass an investiture vote on 2 March. Subsequently, a political impasse set in as King Felipe VI could not find a new candidate to nominate with sufficient parliamentary support. As a result, a snap election was held on 26 June. The second election also proved inconclusive, and a failed investiture attempt by Mariano Rajoy on 31 August raised the prospect of a third election.
  On 1 October, a party rebellion resulted in Pedro Sánchez being ousted as leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the latter voting to allow the formation of a People's Party minority government. This materialized on 29 October when the PSOE abstained in Rajoy's second investiture bid, thus ending the political deadlock after 314 days without an elected government.
context_section_description: The PP immediately started probing political parties in search of support for Rajoy's investiture. CCa did not rule out supporting a Rajoy-led cabinet, whereas the PNV demanded a number of conditions such as further devolution for the Basque Country, the recognition of Spain's national diversity and the rehabilitation and reintegration of ETA prisoners, moves which would have meant drastic changes in PP policy. After a meeting with Rajoy on 6 July to discuss this offer, PNV spokesperson Aitor Esteban claimed that they were both "absolutely away" and assured that his party would be voting against Rajoy unless a "change of attitude" was perceived.
  On 9 July, Pedro Sánchez announced that his party would be voting against Rajoy's investiture, asking the prime minister to look for a parliamentary majority without the PSOE. Unidos Podemos sought to ease the chances for the formation of an alternative government to Rajoy and sought PSOE's support to it but this possibility was rejected by Sánchez, who preferred to go into opposition. Several PSOE leaders proposed that other parties participate in a "joint abstention" in Rajoy's investiture, appealing to the "collective responsibility of all parties" for the institutional impasse—with the goal of preventing a third general election but, at the same time, avoiding their party from bearing the brunt of the responsibility of allowing Rajoy's election—but Unidos Podemos quickly dismissed this proposal as "cowardice". As Rajoy clashed with the PSOE's harsher-than-expected stance towards him, he scheduled a meeting with Pedro Sánchez for 13 July, where the former warned the Socialists that either they gave up and allowed for a PP minority government or a third election would be the only way out.
  Unidos Podemos and C's leaders Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera met Rajoy on 12 July as part of the latter's contacts with political parties. Rivera hinted at being willing to abstain in Rajoy's investiture—initially expected to be held at some point in late July or early August—as an attempt to pressure the PSOE into doing likewise and allowing for a government to be formed, in what was seen as a change in the party's main election pledge not to allow Rajoy to remain in office. The next day, C's confirmed its change of position and announced that it would be voting against Rajoy in the first ballot of investiture but would abstain in the second ballot, in which Rajoy would only require of a simple majority to be elected. On the other hand, Iglesias noted Rajoy on Podemos's political project incompatibility with that of the PP and that Rajoy should expect nothing but the frontal opposition of his party to the investiture, while once again urging Sánchez to take the initiative and try to form an alternative government himself as the PSOE had to choose "between Rajoy, a leftist alternative or a new election".
  On 18 July, PP and C's reached an agreement for electing the Congress Bureau and having Patxi López replaced by development minister Ana Pastor as the Speaker, whereas Unidos Podemos intended to have En Comú Podem's spokesperson Xavier Domènech run for the post. As a result, Pastor was elected as new president of the Congress in the second ballot, in which Unidos Podemos's deputies voting for López as a political gesture, and owing to the regionalist and nationalist parties in the chamber having chosen to cast blank ballots rather than supporting any one of the main candidates.
  The election of the Congress Bureau—which was conducted through secret ballot—would see some controversy as a result of the composition designed by PP and Cs being supported by an additional 10 votes of unknown origin, which resulted in the PP's candidate for the Congress's third vice presidency, Rosa Romero, being elected over Podemos's candidate Gloria Elizo. As PSOE and Podemos had each voted for their own candidates without any missing ballots, both parties accused the PDeCAT and PNV from having surreptitiously lent their votes to the PP to ensure that Elizo was not elected.
caption: Rajoy and Sánchez in the constitutive meeting of the 12th Congress of Deputies on 19 July 2016.
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