Pedro Sánchez Struggles To Form A New Government In Spain

 

Hardly anyone predicted a draw in Spain’s elections, and yet the Socialists of Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, and the opposition centre-right People’s Party (pp) ended up taking about a third of the vote each on July 23rd. But even with their preferred coalition partners, Vox for the pp and Sumar for the Socialists, both are short of a majority. So small parties, nearly all of which lost seats, now hold the key to governing Spain again, and the hunt is on for allies.

No significant party beside the pp will vote to create a government that includes, or depends on the support of, the hard-right Vox party, leaving the pp without any obvious routes to reaching a majority. That leaves Mr Sánchez and Sumar, his radical-left partner party, trying to bring five regional parties to support him as prime minister for another term. Four of these are separatist. Spain, in other words, cannot be governed without the support of those who want to break it up.