Political leaders have spent the last two days meeting with the Spanish monarch to try to establish a stable government in the country. King Felipe has now declared the meetings over and said, in a statement on Tuesday evening, that he would not be putting forward a candidate for Prime Minister as none of the parties consulted can command the confidence needed to form an administration. Therefore, a new general election will be held in Spain this November.
King Felipe VI’s recent meeting with the leaders of Spain’s political parties has been focused on whether the current Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has enough support in Spain’s lower house of parliament, the Congress, to be voted back into office as prime minister. Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) spent several hours trying to negotiate a last minute deal with the Popular Party (PP), Podemos and Ciudadanos, to avoid a fresh election. However, the talks failed.
After the meetings, Meritxell Batet, the speaker of Congress, met King Felipe for further discussions. The meeting concluded that current Prime Minister Sánchez did not have enough support among the deputies. The statement issued on Tuesday said: “His Majesty has concluded that there is no candidate who counts on the necessary support for the Congress of Deputies to lend him its confidence.”
This will be Spain’s fourth general election in four years. The last was in April this year with the fresh ballot set for November 10th 2019. That means that, for the second time in the same year, Spanish voters will decide who they want to represent them in 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate.
