Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, 63, was unseated on Friday in a parliamentary revolt. He was ousted over a corruption scandal. Mr. Rajoy was voted out by 180 of the 350 lawmakers
Pedro Sánchez of the socialists is now the new Prime Minister even though Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right PP remains the largest single party, with 134 members of the 350-strong Congress of Deputies compared to Sánchez’s socialists with 84.
Mr. Rajoy who has been leading Spain since 2011 saw the country through banking bailout, recession, the eurozone debt crisis and mass street protests over his austerity cuts. He led Spain back to growth.
Last week a court jailed one of his party’s former treasurers for 33 years for fraud and money laundering and fined the PP itself for benefiting institutionally from kickbacks for public contracts in the so called “Gürtel” affair. Mr. Rajoy had testified in the case, in which 29 defendants were jailed. After a corruption scandal on such a scale, it was entirely necessary that the party and its leader should be given their marching orders and a new government formed.
Mr. Rajoy’s removal came on the same day that a new government led by anti-establishment, anti-EU, populist parties took control in Italy putting the European economy on a knife-edge.
The task of leading Spain is now in the hands of 46 years old Pedro Sánchez
