Spain's outgoing PM admits defeat in non-confidence vote to oust him

MADRID - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday admitted that a non-confidence vote "will succeed" in ousting him, saying the country was better than when he took office seven years ago.

The results of the vote, which took place at the Spanish Congress of Deputies, saw opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez set to replace Rajoy as the next prime minister.

"We can perceive that Mr. Sanchez's motion of non-confidence will succeed ... I am the first to congratulate him, but I can not share his intentions," Rajoy said at the lower house in remarks bidding farewell to the Spanish people.

"It has been an honor to be the prime minister of Spain. It has been an honor to leave my position with the country better than when I became prime minister," he added, expressing the hope that Sanchez will be able to say the same after stepping down.

Sanchez's Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) initiated the non-confidence vote following a trial last week found Rajoy's conservative People's Party guilty of benefiting from Gurtel, a large-scale corruption network.

Sanchez won the motion by 180 votes, as 169 lawmakers in the 350-seat lower house voted against it and one abstained.

Claiming that he no longer had to intervene, Rajoy refused to attend the first session to debate the motion on Thursday afternoon and instead stayed in a restaurant in central Madrid into the night. He didn't show up at the second session on Friday either.

Both Sanchez and the PSOE's spokesperson, Margarita Robles, criticized Rajoy, saying he showed a "lack of institutional respect."