Daily Times

Spain will hold a repeat general election in November — its fourth in four years — after acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez failed to secure the support he needs from other parties. “Spain is bound to hold new elections on November 10,” Sanchez told a news conference late on Tuesday after King Felipe VI met with party leaders and concluded there was no candidate with enough support to form a government.

Sanchez’s Socialists won an April general election but only secured 123 of the parliament’s 350 seats. That left him dependent on support from other parties in Spain’s deeply fragmented legislature to be confirmed premier for another term.

Sanchez had until next Monday to be confirmed or else fresh elections would be automatically called for November 10, but his talks with other parties to try to win their backing have been fruitless. After wrapping up two days of talks with party leaders on Tuesday, the king said in a statement that he would not put forward a new candidate to seek the confidence of parliament to become prime minister because no party leader had majority support in the assembly. Sanchez blamed his rivals for the deadlock, saying he had tried “by all possible means but they made it impossible for us.” He urged Spaniards to “speak more clearly” when they vote again by increasing the Socialists’ majority and give the country the “stability” needed to “face the great challenges” before it.