Charlie Smith
THE Spanish Government is expected to call a snap general election after Parliament has refused to pass the budget.
Catalan parties did not support the 2019 budget proposed by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Spain’s leader refused to make concessions to the secessionists over talks about self-determination.
Sanchez’s Socialist PSOE Government does not have an overall majority, as it holds just 84 of the 350 seats in congress.
He is now set to make an announcement about what will happen next for Spain on Friday after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The government needed the Catalan parties’ support to get the bill passed, but maintained its stance that Spain was ‘indissoluble’ and one part of the country – Catalunya – could not leave the whole.
Meanwhile, the PP leader Pablo Casado, labelled the budget result a ‘a de facto confidence vote’ against Sanchez.
He added: “Or, to put it another way, it marks the end of Pedro Sánchez’s time as prime minister.”
The right-wing PP is currently the largest party in Parliament with 134 seats, as the PSOE are only in power with the support of the left-wing Podemos, lead by Pablo Iglesias.
This latest news comes after the former leader of Andalucia, Susana Diaz, brought forward the local elections of the region to December 2 last year.
The result of that election was the ruling PSOE Socialist party being kicked out of Andalucia after controlling the region for 36 years.
