{"id":179048,"date":"2018-06-02T17:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T22:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/06\/02\/a-well-deserved-defenestration\/"},"modified":"2018-06-02T17:54:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T22:54:00","slug":"a-well-deserved-defenestration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/06\/02\/a-well-deserved-defenestration\/","title":{"rendered":"A Well Deserved Defenestration"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mariano Rajoy is now the former Spanish prime Minister<\/a>, having been done in by scandals and corruption in his Francoist People’s Party.<\/div>\n

This may actually be good for Spanish unity, as Rajoy’s abusive policies toward Catalan separatists tended to drive moderates into the arms of the more extreme secessionists:<\/p>\n

Mariano Rajoy<\/a>, once viewed as the great survivor of Spanish politics, has been ousted as prime minister in a vote of no confidence after several former members of his party were convicted of corruption in a case that proved a scandal too far.<\/p>\n

He will be replaced by Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, the leader of Spain\u2019s opposition socialist PSOE party, which tabled the motion to unseat him. <\/p>\n

It cements a remarkable comeback for S\u00e1nchez, who regained his leadership a year ago<\/a> after a PSOE coup saw him deposed over his steadfast refusal to let Rajoy back into office following two inconclusive general elections. <\/p>\n

The socialist motion won the support of 180 MPs \u2013 four more than the 176 needed in the 350-seat parliament. There was one abstention and 169 MPs opposed it. <\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez vowed to address the \u201cpressing social needs\u201d of Spaniards after years of austerity under Rajoy\u2019s conservative government, adding that he was \u201caware of the responsibility and the complex political moment of our country\u201d. <\/p>\n

After the vote, Rajoy went over to S\u00e1nchez in the chamber and shook the incoming leader\u2019s hand. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been an honour to be the prime minister of Spain,\u201d Rajoy told parliament shortly before the vote. \u201cIt has been an honour to leave a better Spain<\/a> than the one I found. I hope that my successor will be able to say the same when his time comes.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he believed he had done his duty as prime minister, adding: \u201cMy thanks to the Spanish people for lending me their support and understanding. And good luck to everyone for the good of Spain.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rajoy, who served as premier for seven years, had managed to weather a string of corruption scandals within his People\u2019s party (PP) but was unable to withstand political anger after Spain\u2019s highest criminal court found the party had benefited from an enormous and illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme<\/a>, known as the G\u00fcrtel case.<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old\u2019s fate was sealed on Thursday afternoon when the Basque Nationalist party (PNV) joined the anti-austerity Podemos party and the two biggest Catalan pro-independence parties in backing the PSOE motion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, 46, has promised to call elections but has said his minority government will spend a few months focusing on social and educational reforms before taking Spain to the polls. <\/p>\n

His time in office is unlikely to yield profound changes and he will have to heed the demands of the parties who backed his motion. He successfully wooed the PNV by promising to stick to Rajoy\u2019s recently approved budget, which includes increased investment in the Basque country. <\/p>\n

The PSOE leader also held out his hand to the Catalan independence parties, saying he was willing to engage in dialogue over the long-running territorial and political crisis.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is literally the first no-confidence vote in the history of the modern Spanish democracy, so it is a big deal.<\/p>\n

I rather do hope that this is the end of Rajoy’s political career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mariano Rajoy is now the former Spanish prime Minister, having been done in by scandals and corruption in his Francoist People’s Party. This may actually be good for Spanish unity, as Rajoy’s abusive policies toward Catalan separatists tended to drive moderates into the arms of the more extreme secessionists: Mariano Rajoy, once viewed as the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[368,375,371,374],"class_list":["post-179048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-corruption","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}