Spain is set for its third general election in less than four years after rightwing parties and Catalan secessionists rejected the national budget in a key vote on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, had faced an uphill battle to secure approval for the 2019 budget in the face of opposition from critics of his minority government.
Sánchez’s PSOE, which holds 84 of the 350 seats in congress, relied on the support of Basque and Catalan nationalist parties to seize power from the conservative People’s party in a confidence vote last year.
But the two main Catalan pro-independence parties – the Catalan Republican Left and Catalan European Democratic party – voted with the rightwing People’s party and centre-right Citizens party. The budget was defeated by 191 to 158, with one abstention.
Sánchez is expected to convene his cabinet later on Wednesday and call a snap general election to be held in April or May. The next general election is due to be held next year.
Government and PSOE party sources said the snap election date had not been set, although 14 April was most likely, followed by 28 April because Sánchez wants a ballot as soon as possible to mobilise left-leaning voters against the threat of the right coming to power.
Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative People’s party (PP), described the budget defeat as “a de facto confidence vote” against the prime minister.
“Today in congress, we’ve spearheaded a decision, which, I think, marks a turning point in the legislature,” he said. “Or, to put it another way, it marks the end of Pedro Sánchez’s time as prime minister.”
Albert Rivera, who leads the centre-right Citizens party, said Sánchez had lost and Spain had won, adding that elections needed to be held as soon as possible.
Rivera hit out at both the PSOE’s protracted efforts to have Franco’s body removed from its tomb and the PP’s recent focus on revisiting Spain’s abortion laws.
“To stop [Catalan] separatism and unite Spaniards and to speak of the future instead of Franco or abortion, we have to look ahead,” he said. We want elections now.”
The Socialists are ahead in opinion polls – which show them on about 30% of voting intentions – but the two main right-of-centre parties together poll at more than 30%. In Spain’s most populous region of Andalucía, they unseated the socialists last year with the help of the far-right party Vox.
“The idea is to announce we’re calling elections as soon as possible once (the vote on) the state’s general budget is lost,” a government source told Reuters, adding that announcing the election swiftly should overshadow the budget vote defeat and create a more positive news flow, helping the socialists.
The prime minister had been banking on the fact that the prospect of an early election – and a possible win for rightwing parties that fiercely oppose Catalan secession – would make the two big Catalan pro-independence parties swing behind the budget.
But, speaking to the Guardian and other European media earlier this week, the Catalan leader, Quim Torra, said the secessionist groupings would not be forced into supporting Sánchez’s budget plans.
“Are we meant to approve the budget because we’re afraid of the Spanish right?” said Torra. “Mr Sánchez can obviously decide to call elections whenever he wants – he’s the prime minister. But why would he make dialogue conditional on approving the budget?
“Look, between the far right and a PSOE that won’t accept our right to self-determination, I choose Catalan independence.”
Efforts to find a political solution to the independence crisis have been hampered by pressure from rightwing parties – and by the start of the trial in Madrid on Tuesday of 12 Catalan separatist leaders.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of people joined a rally in central Madrid to vent their fury at what they see as the overly conciliatory stance adopted by Sánchez, and to demand a snap general election.
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