Early parliamentary elections is the best option for Spain, where the Socialist minority-government lacks support from Catalan nationalists for passing key government decisions, like the one concerning the draft budget, Santiago Fisas Ayxela, a member of Spain's conservative People's Party and the European Parliament, told Sputnik
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th February, 2019) Early parliamentary elections is the best option for Spain, where the Socialist minority-government lacks support from Catalan nationalists for passing key government decisions, like the one concerning the draft budget, Santiago Fisas Ayxela, a member of Spain's conservative People's Party and the European Parliament, told Sputnik.On Wednesday, the lower chamber of Spanish parliament voted down the 2019 draft budget prepared by the Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) only holds 84 out of 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies. This has paved the way for a snap general election in the country.
"The idea of governing several months by decree, in this atmosphere of rupture with the Catalan nationalists, also seems to be extremely complicated. I believe the best solution would be to call for elections," the lawmaker said.
The draft budget was rejected by Catalan lawmakers, as well as the center-right and the conservatives. Before the vote in parliament, media reports suggested that the general election might be held on April 14 if the budget proposals failed to pass.
The parliament vote came just a day after the start of court hearings of high-profile cases of Catalan politicians accused of sedition and embezzling state funds during the October 2017 Catalan independence referendum.
