Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attends a debate on the government's 2019 budget during a parliament session in Madrid on February 13, 2019.

The government of Spain formally called for a snap general election Friday following its failure to pass its 2019 budget through Congress.

Earlier in the week, the ruling Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) failed to secure the additional votes it needed from two separatist Catalan parties, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT).

With the government paralyzed by a lack of support, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the PSOE called for an election to break the impasse. The vote will be held on the April 28th.﻿

In his televised announcement, Sanchez said he had been left with no choice.

"Between doing nothing and continuing with the budget and calling on Spaniards to have their say, I chose the second. Spain needs to keep advancing, progressing with tolerance, respect, moderation and common sense," Sanchez said in a translation provided by Reuters.

Antonio Lopez-Isturiz, a member of the European Parliament for the center-right People's Party (PP), spoke to CNBC shortly after the announcement.

The Sanchez government is the incumbent government of Spain since June 2018 and Lopez-Isturiz accused the current administration of failing to enact any real reform, other than raising the wages of civil servants.

"This so-called social budget was not the case."

The center-right lawmaker added that he hoped the Spanish people would "come back to the philosophy of the Partido-Popular which is to create jobs for the Spanish people," before adding that one big focus of the upcoming election would be the persistently high level of youth unemployment.

Yield on Spanish sovereign bonds rose before the election announcement. Yield on fixed income debt moves inversely to the asset price.