Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Monday the surprise calling of early general elections on July 23 in Spain, the day after the left defeated the conservatives in a double municipal and regional election.
In a televised address, Pedro Sanchez announced that he had communicated to King Felipe VI, the head of state, his "decision to (...) dissolve Parliament and call a general election" to be held "on Sunday 23 July".
" READ ALSO Municipal and regional elections in Spain: very heavy defeat for Pedro Sánchez
These elections will therefore take place during the Spanish six-month presidency of the European Council, which will begin on 1 July. The legislative elections were originally scheduled to be held at the end of the year on a date that had not yet been set.
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I made this decision in view of the results of yesterday's elections," Sanchez said, looking serious, from the Moncloa palace, seat of the Spanish government. "As president of the government and as secretary of the Socialist Party, I assume the results (of Sunday) and I think it is necessary to give an answer and submit our democratic mandate to the popular will," he added.
Strong surge of the right and Vox
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday's municipal and regional elections in Spain. The leader of the People's Party (PP), the main right-wing opposition party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, immediately announced "a new political cycle".
Of the 10 regions governed by the Socialists directly or as part of a coalition and which were at stake on Sunday, the PP won six including that of Valencia (east), one of the most populous and wealthy in the country.
But besides the PP, the other big winner is the far-right party Vox, already the third political force in Parliament, which, with more than 1.5 million votes in the municipal elections (7.19%), doubled its score in four years and made a spectacular surge in many regional parliaments.
The polls all predicted a right-wing victory in this double municipal and regional elections, but no one expected Pedro Sánchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) to suffer such losses.