King Philip VI calls for legislative elections in Spain on June 26

USPA NEWS - The King of Spain, Philip VI, signed a decree dissolving Parliament and call for elections, to be held on Sunday June 26. The electoral campaign will start at midnight from 9 to 10 June and the new Parliament will be established on July 19.

For the first time in the history of Spain, it is the King who dissolves Parliament and calls elections. Being in government functions, it can not be the Prime Minister who meets the procedure and the Spanish Constitution provides for these cases to be the King who sign the decree, with the endorsement of the president of the Congress of Deputies. The election call was published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette, thus putting an end to the XI Legislature, the shortest and unproductive of recent Spanish democratic history, it has only lasted four months and has not passed legislation.

The decree establishes electoral call in the beginning of the election campaign at midnight from 9 to 10 June. The election campaign will last two weeks, until midnight on Friday, June 24. Saturday will be a day of reflection and June 26 Spaniards go to the polls. The new Parliament to come out of these elections will be established on July 19 and, if all goes normally, Spain could have a new Government in the last week of that month.

From now on, the Spanish political parties have a month and a half to prepare their candidatures and programs. All feel jointly responsible for the historical failure of the XI Legislature, but all blame their opponents. Coinciding with the announcement of elections, on Tuesday took a survey of the Center for Sociological Investigations (CIS its acronym in Spanish), government, conducted shortly after the elections of December 20, 2015. According to the survey, 78% of Spaniards would have voted just as he made, even knowing the outcome of the voting. It is, therefore, doubt whether the elections on June 26 will solve something or, on the contrary, will throw a Parliament as diversified as before.

Just in case, all parties believe that after June 26, will have to negotiate. In this connection, the Secretary General of the Socialist Party, Pedro Sanchez, established last weekend the first red line by stating that never negotiate with the conservative Popular Party. An announcement was criticized by conservatives and the centrist party Citizens, whose president, Albert Rivera, Pedro Sanchez warned that veto is not positive. Also the acting president of the Spanish Government, Mariano Rajoy, said the veto is contrary to democracy.