SPAIN will have its fourth election in four years on November 10 after its acting prime minister Pedro Sánchez gave up on trying to reach agreement with rival parties to form a government and support his investiture.
The leader of Spain’s Socialist (PSOE) party announced the new poll after meeting King Felipe, saying it is “impossible to comply with the electoral mandate” following the April election.
Sánchez was critical of the Citizens and People’s Party (PP), but laid most of the blame at the door of the left-wing Podemos and their leader Pablo Iglesias. “The agreement with Unides Podemos has not been possible,” said Sánchez. “[Podemos] have prevented four times since 2015 the formation of a progressive government led by the PSOE.”
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Sánchez managed to oust his predecessor Mariano Rajoy in June last year but had to rely on support from smaller and pro-independence Catalan and Basque parties, who refused to pass his budget measures without a commitment to discuss self-determination.
He still had no outright majority after the election in April and although Iglesias sought a coalition arrangement, Sánchez was only willing to offer Podemos minor roles in government, an obstacle that proved insurmountable.
Iglesias said Sánchez was making a “historical mistake” forcing new elections and was “obsessed with securing an absolute power”.
Gabriel Rufián, from the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), tweeted: “Pedro Sánchez said that he tried it by all means. If he says the truth is an incompetent and if he lies he is an irresponsible.”
The Together for Catalonia (JxCat) coalition group in Congress said the Socialist leader only wanted to, “correct the vote of Spaniards” until he got his own way.
JxCat spokesperson, Laura Borràs, said: “His way of talking about the dialogue is to do everything possible to avoid dialogue ... he has said the same as he said about Rajoy.
“He was not able to read the results, weave the consensus and want to manage electoral results as if they were an absolute majority they do not have, and want to correct the votes of the Spaniards.”
Citizens spokesperson in Congress, Inés Arrimadas, accused Sanchez of using “the government propaganda machinery” to call an election.
She said: “All Spain has seen that Sánchez wants elections ... If we go to elections, it is because Sánchez is using all the craft and all the government institutions to go on with pieces of propaganda machinery that has no-one else.”
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