Spain MPs elect new speaker with Catalan separatists in focus

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Madrid (AFP): Spain’s new parliament began meeting Thursday after an inconclusive July election with lawmakers to choose a new speaker in a closely-watched vote in which the hardline Catalan separatist party JxCat will play a key role.

Thursday’s vote is widely seen as a trial run ahead of a crucial investiture vote—which determines who forms the government—expected next month.

During the July polls, neither the left nor the right won the 176 mandates for a working majority in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies—with each side only able to amass the cross-party support of 171 lawmakers.

That has put JxCat in an influential position, for how its seven lawmakers vote—both on Thursday and in the investiture vote—could be decisive.

Shortly before the session began at 0800 GMT, Spanish media reports said JxCat had reached a last-minute deal to back Francina Armengol, the Socialist candidate proposed by the acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

“Everything suggests Francina Armengol will get more votes than Cuca Gamarra,” public television said, referring to the candidate proposed by Alberto Nunez-Feijoo’s right-wing Popular Party (PP), which came first in the election.

If confirmed, it would be a win for Sanchez and a step towards him being re-elected as prime minister, although analysts said he would still have a tough road ahead.

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