Spain calls snap general election for 28 April

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Friday called a snap election for 28 April after the government’s budget draft was rejected by parliament on Wednesday.

The election will be the third in less than four years. Congress voted against the budget by 191 votes to 158 with one abstention.

Prior to the vote, Catalan secessionist parties the ERC and PDeCAT warned there would be no budget if the government did not start negotiations on a legal independence referendum in Catalonia. The socialist-led government rejected the demand and urged the Catalans to withdraw their request.

Sánchez recently claimed that a 2017 independence referendum was unconstitutional and pointed to polls showing that more than half of Catalans do not want to secede, although many wanted greater autonomy.

“Between doing nothing and continuing without the budget and calling on Spaniards to have their say, I choose the second. Spain needs to keep advancing, progressing with tolerance, respect, moderation and common sense,” Sánchez said after a cabinet meeting.

Sánchez’s PSOE, holds 84 of the 350 seats in congress, but needed the support of Basque and Catalan nationalist parties to form a coalition and remain in power last year when Mariano Rajoy was ousted as PM over corruption scandals surrounding the PP.