Spain’s Pedro Sanchez survives no-confidence vote by overwhelming margin

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – Spain’s progressive coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, survived a no-confidence vote on Wednesday.

Only the far-right party Vox, which submitted the motion and one independent politician formerly of the Citizens Party voted to oust the government.

In total, 53 MPs voted for the motion, 201 voted against it, and 91 right-wing opposition members abstained.

This is the second time Vox has filed a motion of no-confidence against this government and found little to no support.

While it gave Vox a platform to criticize the government for negotiating with Catalan separatists, passing a new law that makes it easier for people to change their legal sex and to call Sanchez a “cruel despot,” it also gave Spain’s government a platform to defend its progress over two days of debate.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal was also strongly heckled for defending his support of women by saying, “My wife is the boss at home,” calling LGBT activists “degenerates” and assuring parliament that it is “universally accepted” that the COVID-19 pandemic was a “Chinese virus” leaked from a Wuhan lab.

However, as many politicians insisted, Vox’s motion to oust the government in what is already an election year, was mostly a waste of time and public resources.

“Soon, the Spanish citizens will be able to cast their own votes at the ballot box,” said Popular Party spokesperson Cuca Gamarra as she left parliament after the vote.

While a date has not been set, Spain is set to hold national elections in December at the latest.