Spain’s PM calls snap election after conservative and far-right wins in local polls

Pedro Sanchez says Spanish people need to clarify' what they want after ruling socialists suffer losses in regional and municipal elections

Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has called a snap general election in response to the triumph of the rightwing opposition in Sunday's regional and municipal elections.

The conservative People's party (PP) - which used the polls as a de facto referendum on Sanchez's coalition government with the far-left, anti-austerity Podemos party - scored an emphatic win, securing absolute majorities in the Madrid region and the city council, aking regions including Aragon, Valencia and the Balearic islands from the prime minister's Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE).