SPAIN will find out tomorrow if there will be a snap general election after its parliament yesterday rejected the government’s draft budget for 2019.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority Socialist party (PSOE) government holds 84 seats in the congress – less than a quarter of the total – and needed support from pro-independence Catalan and other smaller parties to push through the budget proposals.
The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the Democrats (PDECat) were unhappy that Sanchez has refused to consider, or discuss, self-determination for the prosperous north-eastern state.
An offer by Sanchez last week to have a mediator present at the next meeting of the Spanish and Catalan governments was withdrawn after a unionist backlash.
Catalan members voted against the budget plans yesterday, as did the centre-right and conservative parties.
READ MORE: Pro-independence Catalan leaders blamed for police violence
A total of 191 MPs voted against, with 158 in favour and one abstention.
Sources in the PSOE and Spanish government had indicated that a defeat over the budget would likely be the trigger for a snap election, cutting short the parliament’s 2020 tenure.
Sanchez left the chamber yesterday without giving any indication of his next moves.
He later said he would make an announcement tomorrow after a meeting of his cabinet.
Joan Tardà, ERC’s spokesperson in congress, took a swipe at the Socialists for their “great historical error” that as part of the Spanish left, they had been “scared” to talk with Catalonia’s pro-indy parties.
However, PSOE spokesperson, Adriana Lastra, sought to shift the blame on to the ERC and PDECat, accusing them of “intransigence” and “inadmissible demands” – mainly the right to self-determination.
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