Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


           Spain's King Gives Political Parties Time to End Divisions

   by Reuters

   Spain's King Felipe decided Monday not to open a new round of
   one-to-one talks with party leaders to give them more time to reach a
   coalition deal, although so far they are unwilling to bridge their
   divisions as a potential new election looms.

   After Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed to win enough support
   Friday, parties have until May 2 to reach a parliamentary majority and
   form a government or the lower house will be dissolved and a new
   election will be called.

   Sanchez won the support of only 131 members of the 350-strong
   parliament, with the opposition of acting Prime Minister Mariano
   Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP), anti-austerity Podemos and
   five smaller parties scuppering his pact with newcomer Ciudadanos.

   Although businesses and investors have so far remained calm about the
   deadlock, a new election would raise the risk that Spain's uneven
   economic recovery might be impaired by lost months of political
   leadership.

   Talks postponed

   The king's office said in a statement he would postpone formal talks
   with leaders, which he has held twice since a December election when
   Spaniards deserted the two traditional parties to vote for newcomers.

   But with the clock ticking there are few signs that parties are willing
   to move from their entrenched positions in the negotiations that have
   often boiled over into vitriolic attacks.

   Rajoy, in Brussels for EU talks on refugees, said a new election would
   be "ridiculous," and repeated that Sanchez should join the PP in a
   coalition of center left and center right, which the Socialist leader
   has rejected.

   "I will call Mr. Sanchez and if, as has been the case so far, he does
   not want to see me, evidently I will not be able to do anything else,"
   he told reporters on arriving.

   Sanchez hopes to persuade Podemos to join his "government of change"
   and the upstart party's leader, Pablo Iglesias, who is holding out for
   an alliance solely between leftist parties, said Monday he would reopen
   talks between the two.

   But Iglesias has said an agreement with Sanchez is only possible if he
   abandons business-friendly Ciudadanos, something strongly opposed by
   many Socialist politicians.

   In a survey by pollster Metroscopia published Sunday in the newspaper
   El Pais, Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera and Sanchez were seen as the
   two leaders who had come out best from the investiture debate, with
   Iglesias as the worst.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/spain-king-political-parties-time-end
   -divisions/3223729.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/spain-king-political-parties-time-end-divisions/3223729.html