Its opponents call it the “Frankenstein government”. The centre-left Socialist (PSOE) and hard-left Unidas Podemos (UP) parties that will make up Spain’s first coalition government since the pre-Franco era hold only 155 of 350 parliamentary seats and relied on eight additional parties to win a vote of confidence on Tuesday. Six leftist and regionalist outfits backed the new government, taking it to 167 votes. The abstentions of left-wing Catalan secessionists and a Basque secessionist party squeezed the “no” votes to 165. Thus PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez, who became prime minister in 2018 following a no-confidence vote in the conservative People’s Party (PP) government, squeaked across the line.
The wider circumstances in which the new government takes office are tricky, too. Spanish politics used to enjoy almost German levels of stability, with four prime ministers from 1982 to 2018 and the PSOE and the PP dominant. But three interlocking crises – the economic slump from 2008, corruption scandals and the rise of Catalan separatism – have fractured the old landscape.
Content from our partners
