MADRID, June 1, 2018 (News Wires) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's six year reign ended on Friday after a successful no confidence vote sparked by a financial scandal. The leader of Spanish Socialist party Pedro Sanchez is the new prime minister and is expected to take office by Monday, while his cabinet will be appointed next week. In a brief speech before the house took a break ahead of the vote, Rajoy conceded defeat while a jubilant Sanchez stood to applause. The results were 180 for, 169 against and one abstention. Forty-six-year-old Sanchez is now the prime minister in waiting. Spain's King Felipe VI still has to swear him in. And on the same day that Italy will form a populist coalition after three months adrift, there is fear the Spanish situation could spark another Italian-style political crisis, throwing the European Union and global financial market into chaos. Sanchez is vowing to address the "social urgencies" of Spaniards after years of austerity under the conservative government of Rajoy. Socialist party leader Sanchez ousted Rajoy's conservative government on Friday by narrowly winning a no-confidence vote in parliament following corruption convictions linked to the outgoing leader's Popular Party. The 46 year-old Sanchez told reporters in Madrid that he was "aware of the responsibility and the complex political moment of our country." He vowed to build consensus among political parties to "transform and modernize" Spain and "address the social urgencies of many people who suffer precariousness and inequality." Sanchez's appointment needs to be published in Spain's official gazette before he can be sworn in by King Felipe VI over the coming days. Spain's center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) party is vowing fierce opposition to the incoming minority Socialist government, urging prime minister-designate Pedro Sanchez to call an early general election. Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera said the change of government "is not good news for Spain." Referring to Mariano Rajoy's outgoing government, Rivera told reporters on Friday that "we had to censure this government, but not in this way." Sanchez won the support of Basque and Catalan nationalist parties to oust Rajoy in a parliamentary vote. Rivera said his party would be "very attentive to the concessions" that are made. Sanchez, the leader of the largest opposition party, could be sworn in as early as Saturday and appoint his Cabinet next week. To prevent a power vacuum after a no-confidence motion, Spanish law makes the motion's author - in this case, Sanchez - the country's new leader as soon as the king swears him in. The end of Rajoy's more than six-year reign as Spanish prime minister was the first ouster of a serving leader by parliament in four decades of democracy. Rajoy went to shake hands with Sanchez after the result was announced. The reputation of Rajoy's Popular Party's was badly damaged by a court verdict last week that identified it as a beneficiary of a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme. Sanchez saw that as his opening and managed to muster enough support from smaller parties to send him to La Moncloa palace, the seat of government in Madrid. Sanchez, 46, takes the helm of the 19-country eurozone's fourth-largest economy at a time when the European Union faces numerous challenges, including the United Kingdom's departure from the bloc and migrants continuing to enter the continent from North Africa. Sanchez and his party are staunch supporters of the EU and the continent's shared currency. The Madrid stock exchange was up nearly 1.6 percent after Sanchez won the vote, earning a standing ovation from his party's lawmakers. Sanchez, who will be Spain's seventh prime minister since the country's return to democracy in the late 1970s, arrives in power after a spectacular turnaround in his political fortunes. He was ousted by his own party's heavyweights in 2016 over back-to-back losses in general elections and after he tried to block Rajoy's bid to form a government. The former economics professor regained the Socialists' leadership last year. The incoming prime minister has outlined that his priorities will be social issues before calling elections, though he hasn't said when there might be a vote.
