Spain's King Felipe VI on Tuesday formally asked outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to try and form a government, the parliamentary speaker said.
If Sanchez is to be reinstated as premier, he will need to pass a key parliamentary vote for which he will need the backing of a hardline Catalan separatist party cast in the role of kingmaker.
The move comes just four days after right-wing opposition leader Alberto Nunez-Feijoo failed in his own bid to win parliamentary support to be inaugurated as prime minister.
