Spanish Government

THE leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sanchez, is said to be working on a major coalition to form the next government after the stalemate of the general election. To get a majority Sanchez will have to pact with many parties including the Catalan nationalist parties which believe in a breakaway from Spain. I think he should abandon the idea and just realise that the only way forward is to hold new elections. He is opposed to any pact with the centre-right Partido Popular, which won the election but failed to secure a majority. Sanchez wants to form a broad left-wing coalition but obviously this could be very dangerous especially if he has to pact with parties which have some rather radical policies such as the far-left Podemos, which came third in the general election and was probably the biggest winner overall. Be prime minister at any price? Well obviously there is the temptation but there is also the national interest at stake. For Sanchez’s coalition to come together he would have to place many square pegs in round holes and that would be just the start. Keeping the coalition together would require an enormous amount of  work and probably the affairs of government would be abandoned because keeping all the parties in the coalition together would require most of the prime minister’s energy and skill. Another general election is the only answer but the Partido Popular and the socialists are going to have to work very hard to get a result.