No early elections in Spain, says new PM Sanchez

Spain’s new Prime
Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said he
was unlikely to call a snap election and that
he wanted to hold the next countrywide vote
in 2020 when the current term is scheduled to
end.
Sanchez, who toppled his conservative
predecessor Mariano Rajoy last month in a
confidence vote, controls less than a quarter
of the seats in the parliament and he had
been until now widely expected to call a
general election in the next months.
“My ambition is to go until the end of the
term and call the next election in 2020,”
Sanchez told Spain’s public broadcaster TVE
in his first interview since he was sworn in.
From appointing a cabinet with a majority of
women to taking in drifting migrant ship
Aquarius or raising public pensions in line
with inflation, Sanchez has announced high-
profile measures to cement his power and
lure left-wing voters.
He also said on Monday he would soon meet
the head of the restive Catalonia region and
was in favor of bringing Catalan politicians
who are currently in jail for their role in an
illegal independence drive closer to home.