MADRID, Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain will hold its fourth election in four years in November after last-minute initiatives to break a months-long impasse failed to achieve a breakthrough.
“Spain is bound to hold new elections on November 10,” acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference late on Tuesday, after King Felipe VI met party leaders and concluded there was no candidate with enough support in the country’s deeply fragmented legislature to form a coalition.
Spain has been in political limbo since Sanchez’s Socialists won the most votes in a parliamentary election in April but fell short of a majority in the 350-seat Parliament to govern on their own.
That left Sanchez dependent on support from other parties to be confirmed prime minister for another term.
Despite months of on-and-off contacts, Sanchez’s negotiations with Podemos, the Socialist party’s leftist rival and most likely partner, collapsed. He was also unable to reach a deal with the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the centre-right Ciudadanos, which refused to help him to form a minority government by abstaining in a confidence vote.
Sanchez had until next Monday to be confirmed or else fresh elections would be automatically called for Nov 10, but his talks with other parties to try to win their backing have been fruitless.
On Tuesday, after wrapping up two days of talks with party leaders, King Felipe VI said in a statement that he would not put forward a new candidate to seek the confidence of parliament to become prime minister because no party leader had majority support in the assembly.
For his part, Sanchez blamed his rivals for the deadlock, saying he had tried “by all possible means but they made it impossible for us”.
The 47-year-old urged Spaniards to “speak more clearly” when they vote again by increasing the Socialists’ majority and give the country the “stability” needed to “face the great challenges” before it.
Spain, the fourth-largest eurozone economy, faces several problems for which it needs a stable government: an ongoing separatist movement in its northeastern region of Catalonia, high unemployment, low wages and job insecurity.
The country has been gripped by political instability since the December 2015 elections ended the traditional two-party system with the emergence of Podemos and Ciudadanos.
Polls suggest the Socialists would win more seats in a repeat election but still fall short of a majority. — NNN-AGENCIES
