PRIME MINISTER Pedro Sanchez has announced that a general election will take place in Spain on July 23rd.
Sanchez made the shock move in a statement delivered in Madrid on Monday morning and he took no questions from reporters.
It had been expected that the general election, which had to take place before the end of the year, was going to be held in late November and early December.
Sunday’s regional and municipal election results were disappointing for Sanchez’s PSOE socialists with a number of key authorities like the Valencian government and Valencia City Council returning to the control of the conservative Partido Popular(PP).
Sanchez issued a challenge in his brief statement for ‘progressive forces’ to come together to prevent a PP coalition with the far-right Vox party.
“The things Spaniards should do is to define the political future of the country,” said Sanchez.
It’s a real throw of the political dice for Sanchez who governs in a coalition between the PSOE and the far-left Unidas Podemos.
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