Government Spanishmeeting in extraordinary session, approved the call for early general elections for July 23, as the head of the Executive, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, had previously announced.
The strong setback suffered this Sunday by the left in the municipal and regional elections has led Sánchez to bring forward the parliamentary elections, scheduled for next December.
The president of the Government, @sanchezcastejonhas communicated to the head of state his decision to convene a Council of Ministers this afternoon, to dissolve the Cortes and proceed to call general elections.
The elections will be held on Sunday, July 23. pic.twitter.com/LU7WI7fEze
— The Moncloa (@desdelamoncloa) May 29, 2023
Media like the newspaper The country, have defined the last days as a “dramatic electoral night for the PSOE” with “drastic and rapid reaction from Pedro Sánchez the next morning”.
The general elections will be held during the Spanish presidency of the European Union, which begins on July 1.
The significant rise of the right has made the socialists lose large shares of power in regional governments and town halls.
The conservatives of the Popular Party (PP) have achieved an absolute majority in the city of Madrid and its region, where they already governed, and now they aspire to unseat the left-wing coalition between socialists and United We Can from the nation’s government.
The electoral advance was a rather unexpected decision, which has surprised both Sánchez’s political rivals and sectors of his own party.
With information from Efe and El País.
