Snap regional elections called in the Basque Country and Galicia

SNAP regional elections have this week been called in both the Basque Country and Galicia.

Basque regional president and leader of the PNV nationalist party, Iñigo Urkullu, was the first to announce early regional elections on Monday.

Sr Urkullu announced the regional ballot would take place on April 5.

Sr Urkullu currently rules in the region with the support of PSOE and Podemos and will be standing for re-election with poll surveys forecasting a similar outcome.

A few hours later, Galicia regional president Alberto Nuñez Feijoo (PP) made the same announcement for the Galicia regional ballot to coincide with the Basque elections. Galicia is a PP stronghold but recent surveys and the results of recent general elections show the northwestern regional could be steering towards the left.

In Galicia, Sunday April 5 marks the beginning of Easter holidays and experts believe Sr Feijoo has called the date hoping for lower participation to hold on to this post.

It has been rumoured that

Ciudadanos, that lost heavily in the last general election, could be attempting a coalition with the PP in the Basque Country and maybe in Galicia to guarantee Feijoo's re-election.

The coalition could be agreed to Cataluña.

Catalan president Quim Torra recently announced there would be early regional elections, but did not give a date and only suggested this would be announced once the regional budget had been passed.

In any case the Catalan ballot will no longer be able to coincide with the Basque or Galicia elections and is expected to be called in May.

Whichever the final date is, three of Spain's most important regions will be holding elections in 2020.