Pedro Sánchez’s tenacity is an asset that few presidents have exhibited with such self-confidence. It has the permanently open front of its parliamentary fragility, but it acts as one who governs with the comfort of a loose majority. Díaz Ayuso’s victory on May 4 in Madrid brought him down to the reality of the precariousness of its 120 seats. It has not changed course but strategy. He tries to reach the end of the mandate with the pandemic under control and with favorable economic prospects.
The change of government did not touch the agreements of the coalition, but it did move the socialist bishops with the coldness of those who change allies to achieve their objective, which is to last. The project is to beat the polls and win the PP anyway.
Sánchez’s partners will strain relations with the Government, but they do not want to abandon it
The trip with businessmen to the United States without having spoken calmly with President Joe Biden, and without going through Washington, is of considerable audacity.
But the difficulties will not be in foreign policy and even less so in a European Union that needs stability after Brexit and the oppositional governments of Poland and Hungary.
It will be on the home front where the parliamentary arithmetic will have to square. The new government narrowly escaped Wednesday, with the help of ERC, to approve the improvements that affect civil servants. The Catalan dispute was not resolved, perhaps only attenuated, with the granting of pardons. But the tension has decreased, which is now more between the partners of the Government than with the Executive of Sánchez.
Given the confrontational attitude of PP and Vox in the face of any government initiative, the only way left is to go through pacts with peripheral parties, which will demand more from it than it can give. But since none of his circumstantial allies will dare to hasten the end of the legislature, Pedro Sánchez’s fragility becomes his great temporary strength.
There are many European governments hanging by very fine threads, both from the extreme right and from the radical left. But the ballot boxes arrive inexorably. On May 4, Madrilenians voted more against Sánchez’s allies than in favor of Díaz Ayuso. The president is going to have to play poker every day.
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