Madrid - The leader of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), Mariano Rajoy, today sworn in as president of the Government of Spain before King Felipe VI, after being re-elected last Saturday by the Congress of Deputies.

The conservative politician, 61, was sworn in at a brief ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace, which was also attended by senior representatives of the three branches of government.

Two days ago, Rajoy was appointed for another term thanks to the abstention of his main political adversary, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE, in Spanish).

As the acting head of the executive for more than 10 months, the leader of the PP won the support of 137 lawmakers from his party, the 32 of the center-right grouping Ciudadanos and one of Coalición Canarias.

The leftist coalition Unidos Podemos, third parliamentary force with 71 seats, and all nationalist groups in the Basque Country and Catalonia represented in the Lower House spoke against it.

With his appointment a period of 315 days of temporariness, in which two general elections -20 December 2015 and 26 last June and two failed investitures were held at the inability of the major parties to reach an agreement closed

Despite the questioned spin given by the Socialists, 15 deputies of the century-old organization broke the vote discipline and refused to provide a new mandate of the Conservatives, in an open defiance of a resolution passed by the interim leadership of the PSOE.

It is the first time that the historic social democratic grouping favors a management by the right wing since 1977 when Spain returned to democracy.

Rajoy will wait until Thursday to present the composition of his cabinet, which, according to several media reports, will present no great surprises.

To this government will correspond the adoption of major measures such as pension reform, the pact for education, the necessary political regeneration after the corruption cases or the constitutional reform.

In addition, it has the challenge of tackling the secessionist challenge in Catalonia, since its authorities committed to hold on September 2017 a referendum to allow the independence of this region of 7.5 million inhabitants.