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However, Sanchez's mandate runs for two more years and analysts
said there was little incentive right now for him to hold an
early national election.
The Madrid region's incumbent leader, the PP's Isabel Diaz Ayuso,
won re-election in Tuesday's elections boosted by her refusal to
close down bars and shops during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The elections also strengthened the far-right Vox, saw the
center-right Ciudadanos collapse, and dealt a blow to the left.
"The People's Party is ready for general elections," PP lawmaker
Pablo Montesinos told EITB radio station. "This is the beginning
of the end of Pedro Sanchez. The main loser was Pedro Sanchez."
PP lawmaker Teodoro Garcia Egea said the defeat of the Socialist
Party in the Madrid region, where its assembly seats fell from
37 to 24 seats, was a sign that voters considered Sanchez to
have mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
The PP has controlled the capital region for the past 26 years
but although its convincing win could give it impetus at a
national level, the right does not have enough lawmakers in the
national parliament to force Sanchez to call a snap election.
Analysts said the regional election result should only push
Sanchez to aim to see throught the whole legislature.
"I totally rule out elections at a national level," said Pablo
Simon, a political science professor at Madrid's Carlos III
university.
"What incentive does the prime minister have to call an election
now? None. The budget was voted, he must wait for the impact
from the vaccination campaign to be seen, and for EU funds to
come to relaunch the economy."
However, insider sources have said that early elections at some
point before 2023 cannot be ruled out, the question being when
that could work in the Socialists' favour.
One government source pointed at the disarray on Tuesday night
within Sanchez' party over their candidate's disappointing
results in the regional ballot.
The Socialists run a minority coalition government with the
left-wing Podemos, whose leader Pablo Iglesias quit politics
late on Tuesday after a poor showing in the Madrid election.
The PP held power in Spain between 2011 and mid-2018, when the
Socialist Party took over with a minority government. After two
inconclusive elections, Sanchez finally managed to put together
a minority coalition and formed a government in January 2020.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Ingrid Melander, Belen Carreno;
Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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