Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for early July general elections after his Socialist Party suffered a crushing defeat in local and regional elections on Sunday.
Sanchez made the surprise announcement on Monday morning, as the conservative People’s Party was celebrating a huge election result after a campaign that attacked the prime minister’s political compact and morals.
Sanchez, who has built a politician’s image on the world stage but has become a polarizing figure at home, said he would now dissolve parliament in preparation for the July 23 vote.
The decision means Spain will be in the throes of another bitter campaign for its six-month EU presidency in early July, an opportunity the Socialist Party has been keen to use to boost Sanchez’s standing at home and abroad.
Voters will choose between a socialist-led left bloc focused on economic justice and a right-wing bloc made up of the People’s Party and the right-wing Vox party, which prioritizes traditional values and institutions.
In a televised address, a deadpan prime minister said he was responsible for the devastating election result, citing the EU presidency and the war in Ukraine as reasons for the need to “articulate” the will of the people.
“There is only one surefire way to resolve these doubts. That way is democracy,” he said. “The best thing to do is for the Spaniards to have their say, to speak without delay, to determine the political direction of the country.”
Sanchez made his long-awaited first visit to the White House less than three weeks ago, with U.S. President Joe Biden thanking him for Spain’s support of Ukraine in its war with Russia.
But in Sunday’s vote, which saw 12 of Spain’s 17 regions and more than 8,000 cities, his Socialist party lose control of a swath of center-right territory, suggesting that Sanchez will face an uphill struggle. To stop the Conservatives in a general election due in December.
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo welcomed the announcement of early elections. “The sooner (the election) the better,” Feijóo said, calling on voters to give his party an “absolute majority,” according to Reuters.
Despite Spain’s relatively strong economic performance and a string of pro-worker legislative achievements, Sanchez’s position has been weakened by his controversial political alliance.
He is relying on parliamentary votes from the Catalan separatist and Basque separatist parties, whose electoral candidates include former members of the disbanded terrorist group Eta, which has been convicted of violent crimes.
Since 2019, he has been allied with the left-wing Podemos party, which has hurt him by pushing botched sexual consent laws that resulted in commuted sentences for more than 1,000 convicted sex offenders.
Despite the PP’s strong electoral performance, the opposition will need the support of the Vox party – now Spain’s third largest political force – to govern in many cities and regions.
The right’s strong showing was partly helped by the collapse of the centre-right Ciudadanos party, with the conservative vote split only between PP and Vox.
The political left remains more fragmented, and analysts see the snap election as an attempt by Sanchez to create a sense of urgency to secure as many votes as possible for the mainstream Socialist party.