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The investiture plenary session of the Socialist candidate for the Presidency, Pedro Sánchez, will begin on Saturday at nine in the morning and the forecast is that the first vote will take place at noon on Sunday, the eve of Kings.

This has been decided by the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, who has formalized this Thursday the convening of the investiture debate on January 4 and 5, and on the 7th in case, as expected, Sánchez will not be elected in the first attempt the absolute majority, set at 176 votes.

On December 31, Batet already contacted the spokespersons of the different parliamentary groups to prevent them from having the debate take place these days so that they had the necessary time so that their deputies could reserve the trips to attend the Plenary of this weekend.

It only remained to confirm the time, although it was already advancing that it would be early on Saturday morning with the idea that the first vote could be held as late at noon on Sunday to avoid the massive Three Kings Parade of Madrid and also give time to the honorable members to be able to move to their places of origin and enjoy the Night and Three Kings Day.

Finally, the debate will start at nine in the morning, with the reading of the candidate proposal delivered by the King to the president of Congress. From there it will be the candidate's turn, who will go up to the podium to expose his government program to the Chamber, with no time limit. SATURDAY, DUEL WITH MARRIED AND ABASCAL

According to confirmed to Europa Press sources of the Presidency of the Congress, after his initial address there will be a break to give the opposition time to prepare their respective interventions and then it will be the turn of the spokesmen of the different groups, who will intervene from greatest to greatest.

Each parliamentary group will have 43 minutes of intervention: 30 of initial speech, 10 of reply and 3 of counter-reply, and it is assumed that Sanchez will answer one by one to all of them and also without time limit.

Thus, it is assumed that Sánchez will discuss the first day with Pablo Casado (PP), Santiago Abascal (Vox), Pablo Iglesias (United We Can) and Gabriel Rufián (ERC), since an average of almost two hours is calculated of debate for each group.

Later, or already on Sunday, it will be the turn of Inés Arrimadas (Citizens), Aitor Esteban (PNV), Mertxe Aizpurua (Bildu) and with the various representatives of the Plural Group - integrated by Junts, MásPaís-Equo, CC, NC, Compromís, the BNG, the PRC and Teruel Existe--, of the Mixed Group - composed of UPN, Asturias Forum and the CUP - and the PSOE.

After the interventions, the voting will take place, which is done by appeal and each deputy stands to proclaim his vote, which takes time. Sources of the Presidency of the Congress have pointed out that the idea is that the first vote will take place at noon on Sunday, although everything will depend on the time the candidate dedicates to discuss with the spokesmen who will speak on Sunday. THE 'SECOND RETURN', 48 HOURS LATER

The time at which the result of this 'first round' is announced will mark the Plenary that will have to be held 48 hours, on Tuesday, January 7, in case Sanchez does not achieve the absolute majority (176 deputies) required in the first tried.

In that second session, Sanchez will have ten minutes to request the support of the Chamber, and the representatives of the parliamentary groups will have five minutes each. In total, one more hour before starting the second vote by appeal, in which the candidate already has a simple majority (more sies than not).

In the event that Sanchez fails and a viable alternative is not achieved in the two months after the first vote, that is until March 5, the King, with the endorsement of the president of the Congress, must dissolve the General Courts at next day and call new elections 47 days later, on Wednesday, April 22.

If the candidate obtains the endorsement of the Congress of Deputies and is invested, the president of the Chamber, Meritxell Batet, will communicate it to the King, for the purposes of his appointment as President of the Government.

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