Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez calls snap election after budget vote defeat

Spain will go the polls on 28 April after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap national election following defeat in a key budget vote.

"Between doing nothing and continuing without the budget and calling on Spaniards to have their say, I choose the second," he said in a televised statement following a cabinet meeting.

"Spain needs to keep advancing, progressing with tolerance, respect, moderation and common sense."

The move could spell months of uncertainty in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, where the political landscape has become increasingly fragmented.

Mr Sanchez's Socialist government has been in office for just over eight months and opinion polls show no single party would win enough votes to govern on its own.