The Catalan issue pushes Spain to the brink of yet another election

Editor’s note (February 15th 2019): On February 15th Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, called a general election for April 28th. This piece, from February 14th, explains why.

THE NOTION that Pedro Sánchez could govern his country for long without calling a general election always seemed unlikely. He came to office as prime minister unexpectedly last June following a censure motion against his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy. But his socialist party has only 84, or 24%, of the 350 seats in Congress. The alliance of leftists and Basque and Catalan nationalists that backed his minority government was united chiefly in rejecting Mr Rajoy. On February 13th Mr Sánchez’s government seemed to run out of road when its budget was rejected, by 191 votes to 158. On February 15th the prime minister is due to announce if—and more likely when—he will call a general election.