The 2018 budget passed in the 350-seat parliament with 176 votes supplied by PNV, business-friendly Ciudadanos (Citizens) and individual lawmakers from Asturias, Navarra and Canarias provinces. The opposition Socialists, the anti-establishment Podemos party and other smaller regional parties voted against the budget. It will take effect in June after passage by the Senate, where Rajoy's party holds a comfortable majority. Two of the ministers Torra proposed are in jail and two are in Belgium fighting extradition to Spain. Rajoy's supporters credit the 63-year-old conservative politician with steering Spain out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

Source: ABC News May 23, 2018 14:33 UTC