A motion of no confidence in the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez was tabled by the far-right party Vox on 29 September 2020,[1] and was debated and voted in the Congress of Deputies between 21 and 22 October 2020.
[3] 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.
[8] 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.
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.
[16] Opinion polling conducted in the days during and after the events of the vote of no confidence showed a large opposition to the motion.
[23] 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.