IN SEPTEMBER Pedro Sanchez, Spain's act-ing prime minister, said that if he agreed to a coalition between his Socialists and Podemos, a farther-left party, he "wouldn't sleep at night". Two months later, just hours after an election on November 10th in which both parties lost ground while the hard right surged, Mr Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias, Podemos's leader, signed an outline agreement to form Spain's first coalition government since the 1930s. Many details are lacking and the deal is not itself enough to guarantee a majority in Congress. But after their fourth general election in as many years, Spaniards may be spared a fifth, at least for a couple of years.
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