Leader of Spain's parliamentary committee out on the wires

A date for your diaries.

Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, newly suggested Spanish PM, has already said he will not work with current PM Rajoy, something I reported back in Jan here

Sanchez has said he hoped to reach an agreement on a coalition by the end of Feb and would seek a confidence vote in parliament at the beginning of March so he has that in place now at least. Failure in that vote would mean that candidates from other parties would have two more months to form an alternative majority before a new national election had to be called.

Rajoy will remain in office until the deadlock breaks and had appeared conciliatory last Thursday, when he said he would consider asking the European Commission for more flexibility on Spain's public deficit targets, which all other parties advocate.

On Friday, he pointed to the PP's election numbers and said "the most sensible" government would consist of his party, the Socialists and the right-wing Citizens party.

No love lost between Sanchez and Rajoy