SNAP ELECTION

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls general election for July after heavy local election defeat

SPAIN is bracing itself for a general election in July after the country lurched to the right in the local elections.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took everyone by surprise by calling a snap national poll for July 23.

It comes after the countryand even shockingly Andalucia - mostly turned blue in the May local elections.

Around the country, the right wing Peoples Party (PP) share rose by 9%, snaring 31,5% of the votes, compared to 28.2% for the PSOE socialists.

In Andalucia, it grabbed 1,486,396 votes, while the PSOE only got 1,434,953, some 13,000 less than last year.

The giant 400,000 increase on 2019 translates to 880 more councillors, or a 26% increase for the PP in Spain’s largest region.

The party gained enough seats to control all the key cities of Andalucia, apart from Jaen.

This included taking power in Sevilla, the capital, for the first time in a decade.

They also unseated the social-

CAT-TASTIC!

By Alberto Lejarraga & Simon Hunter

ist mayors in Granada, Almeria, Cadiz and Huelva, while holding power in Cordoba and Malaga, obtaining an absolute

THE LYNX population has risen by over 300 cats in just a year.

There are now 1,668 of them living across Spain and Portugal.

The figures for 2022 are in stark contrast to over two decades ago when there were less than 100 Iberian lynxes alive, with the species facing extinction. Some 563 cubs were born last year helped by captive breeding centres. Most of the species (84%) are found in Spain with the rest in southern Portugal. They have spread around large parts of mountainous Andalucia, while work was recently begun to reintroduce them to rural districts, near Lorca, inland Murcia. European Union funding, through various Life projects, has played an important part in the running of the programme.