Spain faces crucial week as conservatives re-take power

MADRID — Spain entered a crucial week Monday as acting conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy prepared to re-take power, ending 10 roller coaster months without government marked by hope and disillusion. As the country headed towards an unprecedented third election in less than a year, its political fate hinged on whether the Socialists would allow a Rajoy-led minority government to rule and avoid more polls, and on Sunday they swallowed a bitter pill and voted to do so. While conservatives cautiously welcomed the move, it will come as a blow to millions of Spaniards who voted for two upstarts they thought could bring change — far-left Podemos and centrists Ciudadanos — and many Socialist supporters. “An important decision was taken yesterday, and in my opinion a reasonable one,” Rajoy tweeted on Monday with his usual reserve, as the main Ibex 35 index of Spain’s stock market shot up 1.44 percent early afternoon on news the country would finally get a government. The decision caps a 10-month period that saw Spain go from jubilant hope after December 2015 elections ended the traditional two-party system to disillusion following repeat polls in June. Back in December, millions of voters fed up with austerity and corruption during Rajoy’s four-year term had cast their ballot for Podemos and Ciudadanos, led respectively by the 38-year-old Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera, 36. — AFP