Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Monday May 29 the surprise call of early legislative elections on July 23 in Spain, the day after a final rout of the left against the conservatives in a double municipal and regional ballot.
In a televised address, Mr. Sanchez announced that he had communicated to King Felipe VI, the Head of State, his “decision to (…) dissolve Parliament and proceed with the calling of general elections” to be held “on Sunday, July 23”.
The legislative elections were initially to be held at the end of the year on a date that had not yet been fixed. “I made this decision in view of yesterday’s election results,” Sanchez said gravely from Moncloa Palace, the seat of Spain’s government. “As president of the government and as secretary of the Socialist Party, I assume the results [of Sunday] and I think that it is necessary to give an answer and to submit our democratic mandate to the popular will”, he said. added.
The victory of the conservatives of the Popular Party (PP, right) during the regional and municipal elections on Sunday exceeded the expectations, however optimistic, of the conservative formation.
Six socialist regions won by the right
Of the ten regions governed by the socialists directly or as part of a coalition at stake on Sunday, the PP has conquered six, including that of Valencia (East), one of the most populous and richest in the country. However, he will have to count on the support of the extreme right of Vox in five of them, because he does not have an absolute majority there.
The PP has also strengthened itself in its two regional strongholds of Madrid and Murcia (South-East) and has taken the town halls of Valencia and Seville (South), the third and fourth cities of the country. “We have taken the first step” towards the Moncloa Palace, said Monday morning Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, leader of the PP and potential successor to Pedro Sanchez at the head of Spain if his party wins the legislative elections.
Pedro Sanchez has presided over the Spanish government since June 2018. He then ousted the conservative Mariano Rajoy from power thanks to the filing of a motion of censure following the conviction of the PP by the courts in a mega trial for corruption. He has been governing since January 2020, in coalition with the radical left of Podemos.