Spain’s Gonzalez Calls Early Elections
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MADRID — Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, hoping to take advantage of Spain’s strong economy, on Friday scheduled early elections for Oct. 29 in a bid to win an unprecedented third term for his Socialist Party.
Gonzalez said he is calling elections eight months before the legal end of the current four-year legislative session “to seek a new mandate to meet the important challenges” when Western Europe drops trade barriers in 1992.
King Juan Carlos I will sign a decree today setting elections for Oct. 29.
The date chosen is seven years and a day from the Oct. 28, 1982, landslide victory that gave the Socialists their first absolute majority and 202 seats in the 350-seat lower house of Parliament.
Gonzalez touted Spain’s booming economy that has averaged a European-high 4.5% annual growth since 1986, the year Spain joined the European Economic Community. But he also warned against runaway consumer spending.
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