Spain’s Socialists win the election, but need to find allies

BACK LAST May when he filed the censure motion that brought him into office, Pedro Sánchez brushed off demands for an immediate election. With less than a quarter of the seats in Congress, he governed for ten months through a mix of significant gestures—in particular a big rise in the minimum wage—and symbolic acts, such as starting the process of moving the remains of Franco, the former dictator, to a less prominent location.

His reward came on April 28th when his Socialist party won a general election with 123 seats, gaining 2m more votes and 38 more seats compared with the last ballot in 2016. That is well short of a majority, however, so the Socialists will need allies to govern in the 350-seat Congress. But on paper at least, Mr Sánchez may be able to find them on either left or centre-right.