Spanish Populists Try To Force Early Election With Censure Motion of PM

Spanish populist party VOX has put forth a motion of censure directed at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in an effort to force an early election and topple the current leftist coalition.

Santiago Abascal, leader of VOX, announced the motion of censure against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, calling for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) leader to be replaced by Professor Ramón Tamames, a former member of parliament and economist.

“We are not going to feign democratic normality in the face of the worst government in history,” Abascal said commenting on the censure motion, El Mundo reports.

“A government that is guilty of deceiving voters, agreeing with the enemies of Spain, assaulting institutions, decreeing unconstitutional states of alarm, guilty of galloping inflation, of calling for illegal immigration, of making laws that reduce the penalties of rapists and that pardons the coup plotters and guilty of having a parliamentary group with 18 corrupt people,” he said.

While the motion of censure has been discussed for weeks, with VOX wanting to get the centre-right People’s Party (PP) on board with the motion, the recent “Meditator” corruption case has sparked VOX to introduce the motion formally.

The case involves several socialist politicians who are alleged to have been involved in extortion, corruption and parties with businessmen that involved drugs and prostitutes.

Abascal stated that he wished to see the motion put forth for debate in parliament as soon as possible, between five and 30 days from its introduction, which, if successful, could force a snap national election to coincide with the municipal and regional elections slated for the end of May.

So far, however, VOX only has 52 MPs on board with the notion, all of them members of VOX, and is looking to seek the support of the People’s Party to pass the motion. Abascal stated that he has not given up on convincing PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to vote for the motion, saying, “If it were the other way around, we would support him.”

Recent polling puts VOX between 13.8 per cent and 16 per cent heading toward the next scheduled national election, which is set to take place later this year in December.

VOX’s polling numbers put them roughly around the same percentage as their 2019 national election performance, however, the PP has surged in the polls to 33.4 per cent, far ahead of the ruling Socialists at 24.2 per cent.

A coalition between the PP and VOX could be a possibility for the next Spanish national government as the two parties have already formed a coalition government in the region of Castile and León following last year’s elections.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.