Spanish president calls snap general election for April 28

President Pedro Sánchez has called a snap election in Spain for April 28, after his government’s 2019 budget was rebuffed in a crucial parliamentary vote this week.

Sánchez’s announcement on Friday signals the end of his short-lived presidency, after the Socialist leader ousted the conservative Mariano Rajoy from power in a no-confidence vote last June.

The Catalan pro-independence ERC and PDeCAT parties, whose votes helped oust Rajoy and put the Socialists in power, rejected the spending plan in Congress on Wednesday, after Sánchez failed to meet their demands for concessions on self-determination or the independence leaders now on trial in Spain's Supreme Court.