Madrid (EFE)
It is up to the king to propose a candidate to submit to the investiture session once the meetings at the Palacio de la Zarzuela have been completed.
The interviews with the representatives of the parties will take place after the Congress and the Senate are constituted on August 17, although they do not have a fixed date.
The usual thing has been for the monarch to summon the parties about two weeks after the new Congress starts with the election of its president and the inauguration of the deputies, which would place the round at the end of August or beginning of September.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, winner of the elections with 136 seats, announced after knowing the result at the polls that he is going to try to form a government although he does not reach an absolute majority (176) with the 33 Vox deputies.
The acting president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is not guaranteed an absolute majority either with the 122 seats of the PSOE, so, in addition to the votes of Sumar, ERC, Bildu and PNV, his re-election would depend on the positioning of the seven seats of the Catalan separatists of Junts.
The scenario left by the elections does not clarify who Felipe VI could propose to form a government.
Article 99.1 of the Constitution limits itself to stating that the king, “after consulting with the representatives designated by the political groups with parliamentary representation, and through the president of Congress, will propose a candidate for the Presidency of the Government.”
In January 2016, an unprecedented situation arose when the then Prime Minister and leader of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, who had won 123 seats, declined Felipe VI’s proposal to try to form a government, forcing another round of interviews.
The name proposed by the head of state will be submitted to the investiture session, which will prosper if it achieves an absolute majority.
If it is not reached, there will be a new vote 48 hours later, in which only a simple majority will be required.
If the candidate fails, the king would convene a new round of consultations and a period of two months would be opened for another candidate to attempt the investiture, which if he failed, would lead the country to new general elections.
It will be the tenth round of consultations of Felipe VI in his nine years of reign, when his father, Juan Carlos I, starred in ten during the 38 years in which he was on the throne.