Sanchez Announces Early General Election
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez announced yesterday Monday 29th May that he is dissolving parliament and calling an early election on July 23rd.
The announcement from his official residence in Moncloa, came a day after the conservative Partido Popular and far right Vox made strong gains in regional and municipal polls.
Spain was due to hold general elections by December 10th the end of the year at the end of the 4-year term that Sanchez won albeit with a coalition in 2019.
In a televised statement, Sánchez took personal responsibility for his party’s poor showing in the 28th May regional and municipal elections, and said that the people need to choose which direction they wanted to go – “ Spaniards should clarify which political forces they want to take the lead,” he said, adding that it was time to let the people “take the floor and define the country’s political direction.”
He said that his government had faced unprecedented challenges of Covid 19 and Ukraine and that Spain is now about to reap the benefits with higher growth and lower unemployment.
The decision will now be ratified by the Cabinet and there will then be 54 days after the dissolution of the country’s parliament to hold the election.
His Socialist PSOE party trailed the conservative Partido Popular by 3 points in the regional elections and he faces too the far left parties of Podemos Unidas and newly launched Sumar.
The elections will also take place just three weeks after Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
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