Spain’s prime minister gambles on a snap general election

PEDRO SÁNCHEZPP is no stranger to comebacks. Ejected as leader of his Socialist party in 2016, he toured the country to build support and regained control the next year. And he is no rookie gambler; a motion of no confidence he called as leader of the opposition, in 2018, installed him as a surprise prime minister. Nor is he a bad political horse-wrangler. After elections in 2019, he assembled an awkward minority government with the radical-left Podemos party that has held together since then.All these qualities are now on display as Mr Sánchez makes another gamble. On May 29th he announced snap elections for July 23rd, after his party had suffered heavy reverses in regional and municipal elections a day earlier. The conservative opposition People’s Party () not only won the regions of Valencia (a former bastion it had lost) and Aragón (an even harder target). It even won in the south-western region of Extremadura, held by the Socialists almost continuously since democracy was restored in Spain in 1978 after the death of Francisco Franco. Other regions and symbolic cities also swung from left to right.