Sanchez touches the void

摘要

THE NOTION that Pedro Sanchez could govern his country for long without calling a general election always seemed unlikely. He came to office as prime minister unexpectedly last June following a censure motion against his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy. But his socialist party has only 84, or 24%, of the 350 seats in Congress. The alliance of leftists and Basque and Catalan nationalists that backed his minority government was united chiefly in rejecting Mr Rajoy. On February 13th Mr Sanchez's government seemed to run out of road when its budget was rejected, by 191 votes to 158. On February 15th the prime minister is due to announce if-and more likely when-he will call a general election.