Spain centre-right leader asks to meet acting PM to break political deadlock

Spain's center-right Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera on Tuesday said he had sent a letter urgently requesting a meeting with acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in order to break a political deadlock and avoid a repeat election.

Rivera on Monday set out three conditions to drop opposition to a Sanchez government: a pledge not to increase taxes, the chance to apply direct rule again in Catalonia if the regional government rejects an upcoming sentence in a separatist trial, and rejection of a pact with Basque nationalists in Navarra.

Sanchez's Socialists won an election in April without enough seats to govern on their own, illustrating how politics in the euro zone's fourth-largest economy have fragmented with the emergence of new parties.