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A motion of no confidence in the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez was tabled by the far-right party Vox on 29 September 2020, and was debated and voted in the Congress of Deputies between 21 and 22 October 2020. It was the fifth motion of no confidence in Spain since the country's transition to democracy.

The motion was announced by Vox leader Santiago Abascal during a Congress plenary debate on 29 July 2020, justifying it on the basis of an alleged mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain on the part of Sánchez's government. Despite hints at fielding a "prestigious independent candidate", failure in finding a suitable alternative candidate led to the motion's tabling being delayed until late September and in Abascal himself being nominated to defend the party's programme.

No party other than Vox (which commands 52 deputies in the Congress) showed a willingness to support the motion, a fact that, coupled with parliamentary arithmetics—with Spanish right-from-centre parties commanding 153 out of the 176 seats required for it to pass even in the event that they coordinated themselves to support it—meant that it would fail in its attempt to bring down Sánchez's government. With the voting resulting in only 52 deputies in support of the motion to 298 against, it became the least-supported motion of no confidence in Spanish history.

Legal provisions

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 required for motions of no confidence to be proposed by at least one-tenth of the Congress of Deputies—35 out of 350. Following the German model, votes of no confidence in Spain were constructive, so the motion was required to include an alternative candidate for prime minister. For a motion of no confidence to be successful, it had to be passed by an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. A minimum period of five days from the motion's registration (dubbed as "cooling period") was required to pass before it could come up for a vote, but no maximum was established. Other parties were entitled to submit alternative motions within the first two days from the registration.

1. The Congress of Deputies may challenge Government policy by passing a motion of censure by an absolute majority of its members.
2. The motion of censure must be proposed by at least one tenth of the Deputies, including a candidate for the office of President of the Government.
3. The motion of censure may not be voted on until five days after it has been submitted. During the first two days of this period, alternative motions may be submitted.
4. If the motion of censure is not passed by the Congress, its signatories may not submit another during the same session.

— Article 113 of the Spanish Constitution

Concurrently, the Prime Minister was barred from dissolving the Cortes Generales and calling a general election while a motion of no confidence was pending. If the motion was successful, the incumbent prime minister and their government were required to submit their resignation to the Monarch, while the candidate proposed in the motion was automatically considered to have the confidence of the Congress of Deputies and immediately appointed as prime minister. If unsuccessful, the signatories of the motion were barred from submitting another during the same session.

The procedure for motions of no confidence was regulated within Articles 175 to 179 of the Standing Orders of the Congress of Deputies, which provided for the debate on the motion starting with its defence by one of the signatory members without any time limitations, to be followed by an also time-unlimited speech by the nominated candidate to explain their political programme. Subsequently, spokespeople from the different parliamentary groups in Congress were allowed to speak for thirty minutes, with an opportunity to reply or rectify themselves for ten minutes. Members of the government were allowed to take the floor and speak at any time of their request during the debate.

Opinion polls

Opinion polling conducted in the days during and after the events of the vote of no confidence showed a large opposition to the motion.

Opinion on the motion of no confidence

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Support	Reject	Neither	?
Redlines/VozPópuli	23 Oct 2020	?	26.3	71.5	—	2.3
Sigma Dos/El Mundo	22–23 Oct 2020	1,000	13.6	55.5	25.6	5.4
ElectoPanel/Electomanía	16–19 Sep 2020	1,632	35.7	64.3	—	—

Events

Party positions

After Vox announced in July 2020 that it would table a motion of no confidence in September, the various parties announced their stances to the motion. Aside of the governing parties—the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos—and barring any major position change, it was expected to meet with the opposition of Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), EH Bildu, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT), Más País, Commitment Coalition (Compromís), New Canaries (NCa), the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) and Teruel Existe. During the first debate, the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC), the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), the Navarrese People's Union (UPN) and Canarian Coalition (CCa) also announced their negative vote.

Citizens (Cs) also announced its 'No' vote to the motion, which it dubbed as "the most useless thing in politics". The People's Party (PP) announced that it would not be supporting the motion either, but debated on whether to abstain or vote against it. In the second day of debate, its leader Pablo Casado announced that his party would cast a "No" vote.

Vote

Motion of no confidence Santiago Abascal (Vox)
Ballot →		22 October 2020
Required majority →		176 out of 350 N
	Yes • Vox (52)	52 / 350
	No • PSOE (120) • PP (88) • UP–ECP–GeC (35) • ERC (13) • Cs (10) • PNV (6) • EH Bildu (5) • JxCat (4) • PDeCAT (4) • Más País (2) • CUP (2) • UPN (2) • Compromís (1) • CCa (1) • NCa (1) • BNG (1) • PRC (1) • FAC (1) • TE (1)	298 / 350
	Abstentions	0 / 350
	Absentees	0 / 350
Sources

References

1. Ordiz, Emilio (29 September 2020). "Vox presenta la moción de censura contra el Gobierno de Sánchez: "Es un momento de emergencia nacional"". 20 minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2020.
2. Aduriz, Iñigo (12 October 2020). "La moción de censura de Vox contra Sánchez se debatirá los días 21 y 22". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 October 2020.
3. "Vox presenta la quinta moción de censura de la democracia". Última Hora (in Spanish). Madrid. Agencia EFE. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
4. Mayor Ortega, Leonor (29 July 2020). "Abascal anuncia una moción de censura contra Sánchez en septiembre". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
5. Mayor Ortega, Leonor (15 August 2020). "Vox busca un candidato independiente y "de prestigio" para su moción". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
6. Sánchez, Ana I. (17 August 2020). "Vox busca un candidato de consenso para su moción de censura". ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2020.
7. "Vox: se busca candidato para moción entre el 18 y 22 de septiembre". La Razón (in Spanish). 10 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
8. Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel (27 September 2020). "Vox anuncia que registrará la moción de censura este martes". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
9. "Todo lo que debes saber sobre la moción de censura de Vox contra el Gobierno de Pedro Sánchez" (in Spanish). Antena 3. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
10. ^ Gamarra, Lorena (28 September 2020). "Las claves de la moción de censura de Vox: con Abascal de candidato y condenada al fracaso". 20 minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2020.
11. Bocanegra, Javier (29 September 2020). "Vox avanza hacia la moción de censura menos apoyada de la democracia". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2020.
12. "Vox protagoniza la derrota más contundente de la historia en una moción de censura". Público. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
13. Torres Muro, Ignacio (9 October 2017). "La moción de censura constructiva. Una respuesta alemana, y española, a la inestabilidad gubernamental". Foro: Revista de ciencias jurídicas y sociales, Nueva época (in Spanish). 20 (1): 279–292. doi:10.5209/FORO.57537. ISSN 1698-5583. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
14. Santaolalla López, Fernando; Galindo Elola-Olaso, Fernando; Miranda, Luis Manuel (2018). "Constitución española, Sinopsis artículo 113". Congress of Deputies (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 July 2020.
15. ^ "The Spanish Constitution" (PDF). Official Gazette of the State. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
16. "Standing Orders of the Congress of Deputies" (PDF). Congress of Deputies. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
17. "El 71% de los españoles suspende la moción de Vox por "inoportuna"". VozPópuli (in Spanish). 23 October 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
18. "La moción de censura refuerza a Pedro Sánchez y los votantes del PP respaldan a Pablo Casado". El Mundo (in Spanish). 24 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
19. "EP (21S): los votantes del PP, a favor de la moción de Vox contra Pedro Sánchez". Electomanía (in Spanish). 21 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
20. "Rufián apunta que la moción de censura de Vox es "contra Casado" y se pregunta qué hará Ciudadanos" (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
21. R. Aguilar, Alberto (29 July 2020). "Vox anuncia una moción de censura contra el Gobierno el próximo mes de septiembre" (in Spanish). Business Insider. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
22. "Compromís adelanta su rechazo a la moción de censura de Vox" (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
23. Ruiz Sierra, Juan (27 September 2020). "El bloque de la investidura se une para exigir al PP la renovación del CGPJ". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
24. "Ciudadanos, contra la moción de censura de Vox: "No ha habido una cosa más inútil en política"" (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 30 August 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
25. "Casado dice que no apoyará la moción de censura de Vox pero no aclara si el PP votará 'no' o podría abstenerse" (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
26. Santos, Pilar (22 October 2020). "Casado se lanza contra Abascal y da un 'no' a su moción". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
27. "Fracasa la moción de censura de Abascal al no sumar Vox ni un voto en el Congreso" (in Spanish). Madrid: Europa Press. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.

• 2020 in Madrid
• 2020 in politics
• October 2020 events in Spain
• Votes of no confidence in Spain