Politics

Spain PM calls on nation to keep far-right out of government

Madrid, May 31 (EFE).- Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday urged Spanish citizens not to vote for far-right politicians in the upcoming July parliamentary elections.

Sanchez’s address to parliament comes two days after he announced snap elections for July 23 in the wake of his ruling Socialist Party’s (PSOE) poor performance in local elections over the weekend.

“We can stop it in Spain,” Sanchez said, encouraging his supporters to back him against the conservative People’s Party (PP), which is open to forming a coalition with far-right Vox.

Sanchez, the leader of PSOE which has ruled in a coalition with the leftist Podemos since 2020, warned that PP and Vox would follow the “methods of their North American teachers,” referring to the United States former president Donald Trump.

The Spanish PM also spoke of his meeting in Madrid on Tuesday with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, whom Trump defeated in his 2016 election campaign.

He warned that Spanish right-wing parties would follow Trump’s example in trying to tarnish PSOE candidates with alleged scandals and questioning the legitimacy of the election results if right-wing parties fare poorly.

“Which Spain do we aspire to be? Are we advancing or going backward?” he wondered.

Sánchez listed a series of “social advances” his government had achieved “in an extraordinarily difficult context” due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, warning they would be at risk under a right-wing government.

On Sunday, PP garnered the most support, with almost seven million votes, 1.7 million more than in the 2019 municipal and regional elections. EFE

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