Spanish govt loses key vote over budget plan as Sanchez’s allies abstain

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has lost a key vote over his budget plans after political allies who brought him to power last month abstained, Reuters reported. Sanchez controls only 84 seats in the 350-seat parliament. Just 88 members of parliament voted on Friday in favor of the government’s proposal to soften the deficit-cutting path, while 173 voted against, and 86 abstained. The PM cannot pass the budget without the parties that backed a no-confidence motion against his conservative predecessor in June.