Spain Prime Minister Rajoy to face confidence vote

Angel Navarrete | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s prime minister, gestures as he speaks in the senate in Madrid, Spain, on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will face a vote of confidence in his leadership on Friday as corruption convictions handed down to dozens of people linked to his center-right People’s Party (PP) threatened his six-year rule.

Spain’s parliament agreed on Monday that the debate and vote would take place on Thursday and Friday, although the opposition Socialists who proposed the vote may struggle to garner enough support in the fragmented legislature to unseat Rajoy.

News of the no-confidence vote helped drive the Spanish government’s borrowing costs to 2-1/2 month highs, while the blue-chip stock index, the IBEX, turned lower.

Opposition parties are taking advantage of Rajoy’s weakness after 29 people linked to the PP were convicted last Thursday of crimes including influence-peddling and falsifying accounts, in the culmination of a long-running corruption trial.

The PP has closed ranks behind Rajoy, who said on Friday he intended to serve out his four-year term and that the corruption convictions did not affect a single member of his government. The 63-year-old survived a no-confidence vote last June.

“We are deeply sorry that there were people who used the PP for self-enrichment,” party spokesman Pablo Casado told a news conference on Monday, adding that the no-confidence vote was irresponsible and put Spain’s economic stability at risk.

Spanish borrowing costs relative to Germany’s rocketed to their widest differential since the start of the year, though they were also hit by concerns over political uncertainty in Italy.