Snap polls likely in Spain after govt loses budget vote

Spain’s Parliament rejected a draft 2019 budget on Wednesday after Catalan separatists turned their back on the government, pushing the country close to an early national election amid an increasingly fragmented political landscape.

Sources in the government and the Socialist party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Reuters on Tuesday that he would call a snap election if the draft was rejected, with April 14 or April 28 the most likely dates. An official in Sanchez’s office said that he would make his decision known after he chairs a weekly cabinet meeting on Friday.

The euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, Spain emerged in 2013 from a deep economic slump but has been plagued since by growing political volatility, driven by deep divisions over Catalonia’s independence drive and emergence of several new parties.

Smiling but not saying a word, Sanchez left Parliament straight after losing the budget vote, while opposition parties urged him to call elections immediately. “Mr Sanchez, that’s enough, it’s over ... call elections now!” said the head of the centre-right Ciudadanos Albert Rivera.