07/01/2020 (Agence Europe) – Spain has a Prime Minister again. Socialist Pedro Sánchez, winner of last November’s parliamentary elections - the fourth in four years - narrowly won a parliamentary vote of confidence on Tuesday 7 January (see EUROPE 12396/6). The vote in favour of his nomination as head of government was 167 for, 165 against, and 18 abstentions. Pedro Sánchez, who was notably able to count on the abstention of the 13 deputies from the Catalan pro-independence left (ERC), will preside over a coalition government between the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the radical left-wing Podemos party. The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, congratulated Mr Sánchez on Twitter. “Spain is a key partner of the EU. We will work together in this new phase and continue our close collaboration for a fairer, greener and more social Europe”, he said. (AC)