Sanchez calls snap election, left wants united front against ‘black Spain’
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a snap election for 23 July on Monday (29 May) after his ruling socialist party suffered a crushing defeat in local elections over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the junior member in his coalition government, left-wing Unidas Podemos (EU Left), announced separately it wants to urgently reunite the left camp against centre-right Partido Popular (PP/EPP) and the far-right party VOX, the main winners of Sunday’s confrontation, who may also form their own alliance.
Sánchez had said on numerous occasions that he wanted to serve a full term in office and that elections would take place in December, near the end of Spain’s rotating presidency of the European Union, which begins on 1 July.
But following Sunday’s defeat, in which PP took as many as eight regional governments from Sánchez’s socialist party PSOE, meant Sánchez felt compelled to “take personal responsibility for the results”.
Electoral blow for Spanish socialists as centre-right allies with far-right
Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP/EPP) got the most votes in seven of the country’s 10 big cities in Sunday’s local elections, obtaining pluralities or majorities in Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia and Palma. However, it would have to forge …
The PP’s gains, if replicated in the general election in July, could unseat the current left-wing coalition of PSOE and Unidas Podemos, although if the conservative party wants to take control of the country and its regions – known as autonomous communities – it will probably have to form a coalition with VOX.
Sánchez told reporters the call for fresh elections would be formally published on Tuesday after he had already alerted the head of state, King Felipe VI.
“Spaniards should take to the floor, speak out without delay to define the political course of the country,” Sánchez told a press conference in Madrid’s Moncloa Palace, the seat of the government.
A united left-wing front against the ‘black Spain’ of PP and VOX
Meanwhile, Ione Belarra, the secretary general of Unidas Podemos, announced that her progressive party has already opened talks for a coalition agreement with Sumar, a new left-wing platform led by the Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz (currently Unidas Podemos), following the announcement of an early election by Sánchez.
Both parties now have 10 days to register a coalition, according to the Spanish electoral law. Díaz stated ib Monday in a tweet that she will “take up the challenge”.
“Confronted with (the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez) Feijóo’s black Spain, we are going out to win. The people are waiting for us,” she explained.
Sánchez said he had called a meeting of his coalition cabinet for Monday afternoon. His public appearance was the first since the election results were announced and took place just before he met with the socialist party’s executive.
PP confident of a new victory in July
Sánchez told reporters that the general election had been brought forward due to the very bad results in Sunday’s municipal elections, which saw the PSOE suffer heavy losses and the conservative Popular Party gain much ground.
The PP garnered the most support on Sunday, with almost seven million votes, 1.7 million more than in the 2019 municipal and regional elections.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had posted on social media that “soon we will celebrate another electoral night” in Spain.
“The sooner (the election), the better,” Feijoo told a press conference on Monday.
“I ask Spaniards to make me Spain’s next prime minister.”
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