The opposition Socialists presented their motion to parliament, while the centre-right Ciudadanos - Rajoy’s former ally - issued him with an ultimatum.
“If Rajoy does not call snap elections we would be ready to put forward (our own) motion of no confidence in order to hold elections,” Jose Manuel Villegas, a senior member of Ciudadanos, told a news conference.
Twenty-nine people related to Rajoy’s People’s Party (PP), including a former treasurer and other senior members, were convicted on Thursday of offences including falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. They were sentenced to a combined 351 years behind bars.
The case, which relates to the use of a slush fund by the Conservatives in the 1990s and early 2000s to illegally finance campaigns, has plagued Rajoy since he came to power in 2011. He has always denied wrongdoing.
Rajoy became the first sitting prime minister in Spain to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness in the case last year, prompting calls for him to resign.
TIPPING POINT
In his ruling, the judge said there was evidence the party ran a slush fund for many years and that the credibility of Rajoy’s testimony denying it “should be questioned”.
“(His) testimony does not appear as plausible enough to refute the strong evidence showing the existence of a slush fund in the party,” the judge said.
Rajoy was already under fire for his handling of the secession crisis in Catalonia, with many voters turning away from the PP to Ciudadanos.
Hours before the court ruling was made public on Thursday, Rajoy suggested he would run for a third term in an election due by mid-2020, but political observers said he was now likely to face an internal challenge in his party.
Ciudadanos helped the PP pass this year’s budget bill as recently as Wednesday.
“It is clear that yesterday’s ruling marks a tipping point in our relationship with the governing party,” Villegas told COPE radio on Friday.
“The ruling is serious enough for us to sit down, reflect and take decisions.”
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