Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Friday that early elections will be held on April 28, after the rejection of his government’s budget precipitated by the continued crisis in Catalonia. “I have proposed the dissolution of Parliament and the convening of legislative elections for April 28,” the Socialist leader, who has been in office for just eight months, told the press.
The Catalan separatists, who had supported the motion of censure that brought Sanchez to power rejected his draft budget on Wednesday along with deputies from centre-right Partido Popular(PP), after the dialogue between the government and separatists broke down last week.
Announcing the elections at press conference Sanchez accused the right and the separatists of having blocked the “most social budget in our country for a decade” after “seven years of social injustices and austerity”.
According to several polls, the PP, centrist party Ciudadanos and the new far right party Vox would be able to form a majority together at the national level, as they did in January in Andalusia to drive the Socialists out of their historic stronghold.
