A Externer Link: snap general election will take place this Sunday in Spain. The minority government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Externer Link: collapsed in February after just a few months in office because the Catalan regional parties rejected the head of government's budget plan in parliament. They did this because in their opinion Sánchez hadn't made enough concessions to their side in the Catalonia conflict.
The voters must now decide whether they want to be governed by a left-wing coalition under Sánchez's PSOE and the Podemos party or a right-wing coalition between the conservative Partido Popular (PP), the centre-right Ciudadanos party and the far-right newcomer Vox. These three parties managed to mobilise tens of thousands of voters in February to demonstrate in Madrid against Sánchez's government. PP leader Pablo Casado and Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera even appeared together with Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right party Vox.
Externer Link: euro|topics correspondent Tom Gebhardt, who scans the Spanish press for commentaries and translates them for the euro|topics European press review, explains in a video interview how the general election campaign is displacing the European Parliament campaign in Spain and which issues are decisive for the vote.
