MADRID • Spain's socialist Prime Minister yesterday called early elections for April 28, the third in less than four years, after his draft Budget was rejected in Parliament over the Catalan secession crisis.
"Between two options - not doing anything and continuing without a Budget, or... giving Spaniards their say - I choose the second," Mr Pedro Sanchez told reporters.
Opinion polls suggest one outcome of the snap election could be a right-wing majority in Parliament, including a newly emerged far-right party.
The campaign will focus on the hot-button issue of the secession crisis in Catalonia, with the right wing furious at Mr Sanchez's attempts to negotiate with the region's separatist executive, accusing him of yielding to their demands to stay in power.
Mr Sanchez took power just over eight months ago after he ousted his conservative rival in a dramatic parliamentary no-confidence vote. At the head of a fragile minority government, the 46-year-old had to rely on the support of unlikely bedfellows in Parliament, including the far-left Podemos party, Basque nationalist lawmakers and - crucially - 17 Catalan separatist MPs.
On Wednesday, Catalan MPs joined right-wing lawmakers in rejecting his Budget. They withdrew their backing in protest at separatist leaders being tried for their role in a 2017 attempt to break Catalonia from Spain, and for not being able to hold a legal independence referendum.
Even before Mr Sanchez's announcement, the socialists had already taken a campaign-like tone, accusing Catalan separatists and conservatives of blocking a Budget that included social-spending measures after years of austerity.
Yesterday, Mr Sanchez blasted the "blocking of a social Budget after seven years of social injustice, austerity and spending cuts". He highlighted his government's track record - from a 22 per cent rise in the minimum wage to fighting against energy poverty.
He also insisted that talks were the way forward to try to ease the Catalan crisis. "We're willing to talk and find a solution within the limits of the Constitution and the law," Mr Sanchez said.
Opposition leader Pablo Casado, appearing in front of a large Spanish flag at the headquarters of his conservative Popular Party (PP) in Madrid, said triumphantly: "We've toppled Sanchez's government."
The 38-year-old said the election would be about "deciding if Spain continues to be hostage to those parties that want to destroy it... or a PP leadership that can broker deals with other political groupings to stop the separatist challenge".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
