Aug
27
The leader of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region called snap polls for October 21 on Monday, allowing a newly elected government to draw up a 2013 austerity budget.
The president of the semi-autonomous region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, told a news conference in Santiago de Compostela that he was bringing forward the Galician election from early 2013.
The neighbouring Basque Country region last week called early elections for the same date, which will be close to a year after armed Basque separatists ETA renounced violence.
Feijoo, of the ruling conservative Popular Party, said he called the elections to coincide with the Basque vote so as to avoid Spain facing two regional elections one after the other, and to lower costs.
The early vote would also allow a new regional government to prepare the budget for next year, he told a news conference.
“It would not be very reasonable for the government to draw up the budget, approve it in the chamber and then a few days later dissolve parliament and call elections,” Feijoo said.
The two regional elections may take place against a dramatic economic backdrop.
Spain’s borrowing costs have spiralled and it faces debt repayments of more than 30 billion in October, prompting growing expectations that it may have to seek a sovereign rescue.
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