Spain's conservative People's Party on Sunday reiterated its offer to form a "grand coalition" with the Socialists as a way of breaking the impasse that resulted from an inconclusive national election last month and thwarting Catalan separatists.
The offer followed developments in the Catalonia region, where pro-independence parties agreed on Saturday on a new leader. That cleared the way for the creation of a regional government and raised pressure on the national parties in Madrid to form a broad coalition.
Spain has been in political limbo since the December 20 election in which the PP, which had ruled Spain for the past four years, won most seats but lost its parliamentary majority.
A variety of coalition options are now possible, with or without the PP, or a new election could be called.
Senior PP official Fernando Martinez Maillo said on Sunday that a grand coalition with more than 200 parliamentarians would be the best response to what he called the challenge to Spain's sovereignty.
"Now there are no excuses, so that when the new legislature opens next Wednesday, we should reach a dialogue amongst us all to form the broadest government possible of the main parties – the People's Party, the Socialists, and also, logically, (center-right) Ciudadanos, to do many things, including defending Spain's unity," he told a news conference.
The Socialists (PSOE), whose leader Pedro Sanchez has previously rejected the idea of a grand coalition, said on Sunday that he supported PP efforts to defend national unity, but he made no further commitment.
Sanchez, whose party came second in the election, said he would prefer a coalition of the left. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the left-wing Podemos party has said it supports a referendum on Catalan independence, which the Socialists reject.
