The PM’s decision to go to the polls was a canny move from one of the most successful centre-left politicians of the past decade
In May, when Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced a snap general election, commentators were divided over whether it was political suicide or a stroke of tactical brilliance. His Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) had just suffered heavy losses in local and regional elections, and polls suggested a conservative far-right coalition was on course to win an absolute majority in parliament.
But of course, those polls were wrong. On Sunday, Sánchez defied expectations and secured PSOE’s best electoral result in percentage terms since 2008 (taking 31.7% of the vote) – thus ensuring Spain broke with Europe’s wider lurch to the right over the past 18 months.
Eoghan Gilmartin is a freelance journalist who has covered Spanish politics for Jacobin Magazine, Tribune, Novara Media and Open Democracy
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