Why is Spain holding a snap general election this month?
Spain was due to go to the polls in November, four years after the last general election. But its socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, surprised everyone in May by calling an early election for 23 July, after his party’s poor showing in local and regional polls. Faced with a resurgent opposition conservative People’s party (PP) that exceeded expectations in those elections – and which is firmly ahead in the opinion polls – Sánchez brought forward the election in the hope of mobilising leftwing voters and avoiding months of wear and tear to his coalition minority government.
