Spain PM's prospects challenged with confidence vote By Marianne

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's prospects of remaining in power were challenged Tuesday as he faced a first parliamentary confidence vote with his potential allies up in arms against him.

Sanchez is currently a caretaker premier after coming first in an April general election but without the majority he needed, forcing him to look for support in what could result in Spain's first coalition government post-dictatorship.

As debates continued on Tuesday ahead of the obligatory post-election parliamentary votes this week, regional parties that could back Sanchez accused him of not reaching out to possible allies despite needing their help.

If Sanchez cannot secure the votes he needs, he has another two months to find a solution, failing which the Spanish will face another general election.

"What we are seeing in Spanish politics is effectively the natural tensions that occur as a political system transitions from an old way of operating (single-party governments) to what appears to be the new normal...(coalition governments)," said Alfonso Velasco, analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

"Spain might need another election for politicians to accept the new reality." - 'Playing poker' - =================== With just 123 parliamentary seats out of 350, Sanchez's socialists need support to make it through this week's votes.

The first one later on Tuesday requires an absolute majority, which Sanchez will not get.

The second on Thursday only requires a simple majority.

With the support of far-left Podemos's 42 lawmakers, and a few others from small regional parties, he would go through.

But given the anger of these potential allies, that support looks uncertain.

Sanchez's Socialist party has been locked in months of negotiations with Podemos and only recently reluctantly agreed to form a coalition government with the party that was once its arch-rival.

But Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias angrily lashed out at Sanchez in a parliamentary debate on Monday.

He accused the socialists of refusing to give his party positions that carry any kind of weight and wanting them to be "a mere decor" in the government.

As the clock ticks down to the votes, a deal with Podemos has yet to be sealed.

On Tuesday, as the debate continued, Catalan separatist party ERC accused Sanchez of being "irresponsible" for not appearing to want to negotiate with anyone.

ERC had previously said it would not stand in Sanchez's way despite their differences over how to handle the separatist crisis in Catalonia.

But Gabriel Rufian, ERC's leader in parliament, said "the feeling was that you are playing poker with the hope of hundreds of thousands of people who came out to vote on April 28."