Juanma Moreno has welcomed Spain’s snap general election and pledged to campaign intensively for Alberto Nuñez Feijoo.

The Andalucia president said it was ‘about time Spaniards were given a voice’ after Pedro Sanchez called an early vote for November 29.

The regional Partido Popular (PP) leader, who had urged Sanchez to call an election following the defeat of his two housing decrees in Congress, argued that the prime minister had been left with no other option.

‘Pedro Sanchez has finally had to acknowledge the obvious,’ Moreno said during the Dialogos Sur forum in Malaga on Monday.

‘The elections of July 23 did not give him a parliamentary majority. We have had a government without a parliamentary or social majority and without government action.’

Moreno described the November election as being about ‘saving and protecting democracy and institutional quality’.

He also claimed Sanchez had called the vote from a position of political weakness and under pressure from several judicial investigations affecting figures within or connected to the PSOE.

Those cases include proceedings involving Sanchez’s wife, Begoña Gomez, and investigations connected to former Socialist officials Jose Luis Abalos and Santos Cerdan. The people concerned have denied wrongdoing in their respective cases.

‘No need to fear political change’

Moreno accused Sanchez of using his election announcement to promote a ‘politics of fear’ about the prospect of a conservative government.

‘There should be no fear of political change,’ he said.

‘It is time for democratic alternation, so that another project, with other styles, can put the country back on the path of coexistence, common sense and prosperity.’

Moreno argued that Spain had endured an abnormal political situation in which the government had been unable to present and debate a new national budget.

He said the election would decide more than which party forms the next government.

‘It will determine the ways and styles of doing politics and governing,’ he added.

Andalucia ‘will be decisive’

Andalucia elects 61 members of Spain’s 350-seat Congress, more than any other autonomous community, making the region a critical battleground for both the PP and PSOE.

Moreno said the result in Andalucia would ‘condition’ what happens across Spain and expressed hope that the PP would increase its lead over the Socialists.

The Andalucian president promised to become heavily involved in Feijoo’s campaign.

‘I am going to get fully involved,’ he said.

‘I will not do it simply out of party loyalty, but because of an ethical and democratic commitment to Spain. I believe these elections are crucial for the future and for Spanish institutions.’

Moreno said his team would try to ‘humanise’ the campaign and convince voters without relying on fear.

No ministerial role in Madrid

Despite promising to campaign for a change of national government, Moreno ruled out leaving Andalucia to become a minister if Feijoo reaches the Moncloa.

Moreno began his third term as Junta president only three months ago after being formally reappointed in July.

‘My commitment is to Andalucia,’ he said.

‘I have a renewed commitment to this region, and it is one of permanence. I can help the national project and Spain from Andalucia.’

Asked whether he would leave if Feijoo personally requested his presence in Madrid, Moreno joked that the PP leader was not ‘attractive enough’ to persuade him to abandon his current position.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.