page_title: 2015–2016 Spanish government formation
section_title: New round of negotiations
hierarchical_section_title: 2015–2016 Spanish government formation / First formation round (December 2015 – April 2016) / Road to a new election / New round of negotiations
caption_attribution_description: English: Signing of the coalition agreement for the 18th election period of the Bundestag. Sigmar Gabriel, Angela Merkel, Horst Seehofer.Deutsch: Unterzeichnung des Koalitionsvertrages der 18. Wahlperiode des Bundestages. Sigmar Gabriel, Angela Merkel, Horst Seehofer.
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: Podemos sought to avoid being singled out as responsible for the triggering of a new election by adopting a strategy of rapprochement and reconciliation with the PSOE, with a brief meeting with Sánchez on 30 March leading Iglesias to announce that he was willing to give up the post of deputy prime minister in any prospective PSOE–Podemos coalition government as a way to ease relations between the two parties. Podemos also accepted three-way talks with C's, although the PSOE and Podemos still differed on their visions of the role that Rivera's party should be playing: Podemos still refused to enter or support any government in which C's was directly involved but accepted that they could work together on specific issues, whereas the PSOE maintained its wish for a "broad spectrum government" with the support of all three parties, although without clarifying what kind of government was being sought or which ones of the parties would be part of it. The three parties agreed to hold a meeting on 7 April to start talks.
  In the run up to the three-way meeting, C's repeatedly warned that it would terminate its alliance with the PSOE if the latter tried to negotiate with Podemos on its own. Further, the former was seen as distancing itself from the PSOE after abstaining during a parliamentary voting on 5 April involving the paralyzation of the enforcement of Rajoy's education law (the LOMCE), a key issue which had been included within the PSOE–C's agreement. This had seen Pablo Iglesias highlighting the similarities between his party's programme and that of the PSOE while commenting that the two parties' differences with C's made any prospective three-way alliance very difficult. On the day before the meeting, a harsh confrontation between Iglesias and Rivera during a Congress plenary—in which the former told the latter that "it is difficult to agree a progressive government with intolerant people"—evidenced the tense relationship existing between their two parties. On 5 April, C's demanded being given cabinet posts within a PSOE-led government—the first time it did so—and demanded an unconditional Podemos's support to it, in a move seen as a provokation to the latter so that they rejected any agreement with them.
  Negotiations came to a standstill after the three-way meeting on 7 April, as PSOE and C's unsuccessfully tried to persuade Podemos to subscribe their accord. C's stated that pacting with Podemos was "impossible and unworkable", while the PSOE said that they would not be renouncing their alliance with Rivera's party, pointing to the differences between Podemos and C's as the main obstacle for reaching an agreement. The next day, Pablo Iglesias revealed that it had been C's the one refusing the concessions that Podemos had made in the meeting and that they had been unwilling to accept any kind of involvement from Podemos in any prospective government, also adding that Sánchez had been effectively "kidnapped" by Rivera's party and was unable to negotiate on his own. As a result, Iglesias announced that the PSOE–C's pact would be put to a vote among Podemos's membership on 14–16 April. Subsequently on 11 April, the PSOE put down any further talks with Podemos on the grounds of a "mistrust" on Iglesias, not seeing any chances for a successful agreement to be reached.
  Commentators noted in the wake of the three-way negotiation failure that a PP–PSOE grand coalition was the only viable—even if highly unlikely—option left. Mariano Rajoy insisted on his proposal of a coalition based on the existing German model to be led by himself while again rejecting the PSOE–C's accord. The PP also commented on C's arithmetic iirelevance, with contacts between both parties having remained cold-tempered following Rivera's alliance with the PSOE and the harsh Rajoy–Rivera debate during Sánchez's failed investiture. Sánchez expressed a willingness in entering talks with the PP only for the latter to suscribe his pact with C's, stating that the PSOE would "never" support a PP-led government. Sectors within the PP deflected making any offer until S
caption: Following the failure of three-way negotiations between PSOE, Podemos and C's, Rajoy insisted on his proposal of a PP–PSOE grand coalition mirroring the German model.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Capture NX 2.2.4 W", "Image DateTime": "2013:12:17 15:01:09", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 0, 255, 0, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "414", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1036", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11012", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4551", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:12:16 14:46:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:12:16 14:46:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}