WORLD IN BRIEF : SPAIN : Premier Calls Early Elections for June

Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Felipe Gonzalez, called for early general elections to measure public support for his market-oriented economic reforms and his divided party. Gonzalez cited the tense atmosphere surrounding debate about the country’s recession as the reason for calling the election for June 6. The early vote will allow economic policies to be implemented in “a climate without the anxiety and tension that we’re now experiencing in political debate,” Gonzalez said. With the recession expected to continue this year, he apparently calculated that his party’s chances wouldn’t improve if he waited to call elections for the end of October, the latest legal date he may do so.