The Latest Chapter in Europe’s Electoral Challenges: Spain After three years of shaky, minority governments, Spaniards will vote in an election that could produce a stalemate. A new, hard-right party could play kingmaker.By Giovanni Legorano
https://www.wsj.com/articles/spains-socialist-leader-calls-early-elections-the-third-poll-in-four-years-
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called snap general elections for late April, bringing the curtain down early on a short-lived government and pitching Spain into a vote that is likely to produce a fragmented legislature and could showcase the rising strength of a new, hard-right party.
Mr. Sánchez, who heads the only established center-left party running a major European country, invoked snap parliamentary elections for April 28, a year earlier than the current end of the legislature’s scheduled four-year mandate.
The decision followed Mr. Sanchez’s failure Wednesday to secure parliamentary approval of this year’s budget after he lost critical support from Catalan separatist parties.
The April elections, which would mark the third time Spanish voters have gone to the polls in national elections in under four years, could usher in a period of protracted instability, as no obvious parliamentary majority seems set to emerge from the vote. No party enjoys more than about 25% support in current opinion polls.
Indeed, the fragmentation of Spain’s political landscape is such that Vox, a new hard-right party that enjoys about 10% of support in opinion polls, could prove the kingmaker in a new government.
The political situation in Spain reflects a trend across Europe, where legacy parties have faded and new, upstart forces steadily gain strength. The result has been monthslong political haggling in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden before governments can be formed. Even then, many administrations are shaky, minority governments that rely on fragile parliamentary coalitions. CONTINUE AT SITE
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