The Spain Report

The Spain Report

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The Spain Report
The Spain Report
Comment: the new Sánchez government

Comment: the new Sánchez government

PM chooses a mostly continuist line-up, sheds problematic Podemos ministers.

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Matthew Bennett
Nov 20, 2023
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The Spain Report
The Spain Report
Comment: the new Sánchez government
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The new Sánchez cabinet has been announced. Spain has a new Frankenstein II coalition government between the socialists and the further- or alt-left, this time mostly represented by Sumar. Podemos is out of government and crying “unfair..!” The tone, though, especially seen from a European or global perspective, is not a frame the right would use to describe the Prime Minister.

10 years ago, the new radical far-left party Podemos had not even appeared in Spanish politics. Alongside the rise of Syriza in Greece, they shocked the establishment at the European elections in 2014, taking their first five seats in an institution. The abdication of King Juan Carlos and the proclamation of his son, Felipe VI, happened within weeks, as did a PSOE leadership contest, won by Pedro Sánchez, then the good boy of the Socialist Party, the safe hands.

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