Spain: Sanchez rejects new election

Following the resignation of a high-ranking party member on corruption charges, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is planning a restructuring of the Socialist Party. He asked the Spanish people for forgiveness, Sanchez said on Thursday. He rejects new elections. He explained that this is a crisis of the party, not the government. Sanchez leads a minority government supported by Catalan separatists.

Santos Cerdan, number three in the party hierarchy, resigned from his parliamentary mandate and his party offices on Thursday after a judge of Spain 's Supreme Court summoned him to testify on June 25. Cerdan explained his move by saying he wanted to devote himself entirely to defending his innocence. "I have neither committed nor participated in a crime." Judge Leopoldo Puente said there was strong evidence that Cerdan may have been involved in the illegal awarding of public construction contracts for payment. Bribery is punishable by prison sentences of up to eight years in Spain.