Spain’s Socialist leader gets a shot at becoming prime minister despite his election defeat

By BARRY HATTON and BERNAT ARMANGUE
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s acting center-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez lost July’s national election but now has a shot at returning to power. That’s because the leader of the country’s conservatives failed for a second time on Friday to get parliament’s support for a new government. Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo collected 172 lawmakers’ votes in his favor to 177 against him. The defeat exhausted his chances of taking power, bar an exceptional turn of events. The outcome extended the political limbo of the European Union’s fourth-largest economy. It also opened a door for Sánchez, whose Socialists placed second in the election, to possibly return to power if he can persuade smaller parties to back him.