Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos kicked off negotiations over forming a government with the Socialists and other leftwing groupings Monday following inconclusive December elections, breaking a weeks-long potentially-damaging deadlock in talks. Podemos chief Pablo Iglesias had initially refused to sit down with the Socialists if they continued talking with upstart centrist grouping Ciudadanos — an ultimatum rejected by PSOE head Pedro Sanchez, who has been nominated by the king as candidate to lead the country. "Our negotiating team will work for a government of change and progress," Podemos said on its official Twitter account, while the Senate's Socialist spokesman Oscar Lopez regretted the time it had taken for Iglesias to agree to enter talks.