Spain could be on target for a new general election in June according to a private conversation between acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and British PM David Cameron.
Rajoy said "the most likely thing is that there will be elections on June 26th," in a conversation overheard with Mr Cameron at an EU summit in Brussels.
"We have an investiture ceremony in March and I believe it will not work out," Rajoy was heard telling Cameron, seemingly unaware of rolling cameras.
Following the country’s inconclusive election on 20 December political deadlock has ensued.
But at the moment Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez is trying to form a minority government, having been charged earlier this month by King Felipe VI to come up with a coalition.
The King had first approached Rajoy to lead the first round of coalition negotiations, but Rajoy declined. He had already discovered that no party would partner with his Popular Party to reach a ruling majority.
Sanchez does not appear to have had much success in his talks and now has a little more than two weeks to reach a coalition government that will have a vote of confidence scheduled for 2 March.
"I am working for Spain to have a progressive government while others in Brussels already talk of new elections. Pitiful," Sanchez wrote in a Twitter message after Rajoy's spoke.
The centre-right Popular Party and the Socialists refuse to support each other. Podemos, which captured third place, has said it will negotiate with the Socialists only if they close the door on the other new party Ciudadanos which came in fourth.
But it appears that Podemos now has agreed to talks with the Socialists along with two other much smaller parties which had won seats in the elections, although it has been reported that the Socialists and Podemos area divided over key policies.
