Sanchez voted back as Spain's PM

Spanish Socialist Party leader Pedro Sanchez won the simple majority needed in Tuesday's second round investiture vote in parliament to be returned to office as prime minister, ending almost a year of political instability.

The vote was 167 in favor, 165 against and 18 abstentions.

Tuesday's vote came 48 hours after he failed to win the 176 seats needed for an overall majority in Spain's 350-seat lower chamber (Congress of Deputies) in Sunday's first vote.

The vote also came after four days of tension and a bad-tempered debate in which the right-wing parties accused Sanchez of threatening the unity of Spain with his agreement to hold talks with the Ezquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) about Catalonia's independence, although Sanchez insisted that any discussions on a "political solution" would fall under a constitutional heading.

Meanwhile, the Socialist Party denounced a campaign of "threats and coercion" from the political right to try and stop them supporting Sanchez's candidacy.

Sanchez used the investiture debate to present a program of progressive social and economic measures, such as overturning the right-wing People's Party 2012 labor reform bill, limiting abusive rent increases and introducing higher taxes for those earning over 120,000 euros (134,000 U.S. dollars) a year.

He also pledged to form a cabinet with a majority of women that would increase spending on education, stop the depopulation of Spain's rural areas, seek to eradicate prostitution and pass regulation to permit euthanasia and "recognize the right to die with dignity."

Sanchez's new cabinet is scheduled to hold its inaugural meeting on Friday.