Spanish centre-right leader suggests Sánchez may hold snap elections in October.

The leader of centre-right Partido Popular (PP/EPP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said on Thursday that Spain’s leader Pedro Sánchez could call snap elections this year due to his ‘weak progressive coalition’, which depends on support from Catalan and Basque separatists.

The PP, the main opposition to Spain’s social democrats (PSOE, S&D) in parliament, “is considering the possibility of [Sánchez calling] early elections before the end of 2024”, the party leader said in an interview aired by private radio station Es.Radio.

“Spain has no government, and as it has no government, it cannot govern. Is Mr Sánchez going to extend the agony? If he is interested, yes, and if he is not interested, then he will call elections. Is he likely to do so? I don’t know”, Núñez Feijóo stated.

While Feijóo suggests potential elections as early as October, Sanchez already said in June that he has no intention of calling snap elections before the 2027 general election, not even if Catalan separatists withdraw their support or if the 2025 national budget is not approved.

Why does PP insist on October?

October is a key date for determining whether the progressive coalition between the PSOE and the left-wing platform Sumar can go ahead due to an impasse in the Catalan parliament.

Snap Catalan elections in May were won by the Socialist Party (PSC) candidate and former health minister Salvador Illa, albeit without a majority to govern alone.

The president of the Catalan parliament, Josep Rull, a member of the right-wing separatist party Together For Catalonia (JxCat), led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, noted that none of the candidates to preside over the regional executive (Generalitat), has gathered sufficient support.

The official deadline for finding a suitable candidate expires in August. Otherwise, elections in Catalonia would probably have to be repeated on 13 October.

The new budget test

The key to governability in the region is currently in the hands of the other major separatist force, the left-wing Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).

ERC could support Illa’s investiture and form a tripartite executive with the PSC and the left-wing and Catalanist—though not separatist—Catalunya en Comú (Catalonia in Common) party, among other possible combinations.

Sánchez’s government depends on the support of JxCat and ERC, each with seven seats in the Madrid parliament.

In exchange, Sánchez has made generous concessions to both, including a controversial amnesty law and cancelling €15 billion of Catalonia’s debt to Madrid.

The approval of the state budget for 2025, which separatist parties have pledged in principle to support, will be a key point in determining whether Spain’s coalition government can last until 2027, the official end of Sánchez’s current term.

The government intends to submit its first draft budget in autumn.

Feijóo speculates that Sánchez’s parliament partners, the Catalan separatists and the pro-independence Basque parties EH Bildu and PNV, are “vampirising” him by imposing conditions and demands.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)

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