Spain's divided politics

Pedro Sanchez has governed Spain since 2018 without ever winning a majority. After the election of 2023, in which his Socialists came second, he stayed in office with the votes of Catalan and Basque nationalists, and paid for them with an amnesty for those who had organised Catalonia's attempt at secession. The conservative People's Party and the nationalist Vox call his government illegitimate and corrupt. He calls them a single right that would govern with extremists. Neither side accepts the other's right to rule, and no budget has passed in three years.

The wider European setting: The struggle over power inside the European Union.

Where it stands · September 2026

The state polling institute puts the Socialists first despite the scandals. Sanchez has said that Russia and Israel spread false reports about the crossing of thousands of migrants into Ceuta in August, and that there is no evidence Morocco arranged it; the opposition accuses him of hiding what he knows about pressure from Rabat. Parliament has moved to restore Spanish nationality to people from the former Spanish Sahara. Sanchez was jeered at a public event this month; he is due to meet the mayor of New York.

What the dispute is about

Legitimacy. Spain's constitution lets whoever assembles a majority in parliament govern. The opposition answers that a majority bought with an amnesty for the politicians whose votes were needed is no ordinary majority.

Spain itself. Whether it is one nation with regions, as the right holds, or a country of several nations, as the Catalan and Basque parties hold, with the Socialists between.

The courts. Judges are investigating the prime minister's wife, his brother and his party's former managers. The government speaks of a campaign by conservative judges. The opposition speaks of a government attacking the judiciary to save itself.

How each side explains it

The government's account

Spain has the fastest growing large economy in Europe, record employment, and calm in Catalonia, where the amnesty ended a conflict that the right had inflamed with police and prison. The right has never accepted that it lost power in 2018, and uses friendly judges, invented complaints from far-right groups and a press that prints them. Abroad, Spain said no to a war on Iran and to military spending dictated by Washington, and was threatened for it. A government that stands up to Trump, to Netanyahu and to disinformation is doing what its voters want.

In our coverage

Spain's government stands its ground against outside pressure and disinformation →269 headlines
Covered by:El País · Euronews · EurActiv · France 24 (EN) · The Guardian · EL PAÍS

The opposition's account

Sanchez said before the election that an amnesty would be unconstitutional, and granted it afterwards for seven votes. The man who ran his party was jailed, his attorney general was convicted, his wife and brother are before judges, and he governs without a budget because he cannot pass one. He picks fights abroad to change the subject, and at Ceuta lost control of the border and blamed foreigners. Spaniards should be allowed to vote.

In our coverage

What each account leaves out

The government's leaves out that Sanchez called the amnesty unconstitutional until he needed it; that the corruption cases reach the two men he chose in succession to run his party; and that the supreme court convicted his attorney general, not a far-right group.

The opposition's leaves out that the People's Party lost office in 2018 after a court found it had profited from a kickback scheme; that it blocked the renewal of the judges' governing council for five years while it suited the party; and that it governs several regions with Vox, whose programme it declines to defend nationally.

The Catalan and Basque parties' leaves out that those amnestied broke the law as it stood, and that polls in Catalonia have for years shown more people against independence than for it.

The ledger

Sanchez and his allies

Wanted: to stay in office and finish the term.
Gained: eight years, an economy that outgrows its neighbours, standing on the European left.
Paid: a government that cannot legislate, and scandals that have reached his family and his party's core.

The People's Party

Wanted: an election.
Gained: regional victories.
Paid: each one makes it more dependent on Vox, which takes its voters.

Vox

Gained: the most from every crisis, Ceuta above all.
Paid

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

amnesty / impunity
progressive coalition / Frankenstein government
lawfare, the mud machine / judicial independence
far right / the only opposition
plurinational / one nation
disinformation

Events per week

Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.

Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.

Week of Sep 14, 2026(25)

Spain's CIS poll shows PSOE still leading despite scandals

3 sourcesSep 14, 2026

Delcy Rodríguez and corruption in Sánchez's PSOE

2 sourcesSep 19, 2026

Vox moves to protect Supreme Court ruling on CERA

2 sourcesSep 15, 2026

Sánchez to meet Mamdani in New York on economy

2 sourcesSep 14, 2026

Vox accuses PSOE of using Seville Provincial Council as a job placement agency

2 sourcesSep 18, 2026

Vox expands lawsuit against Sofía Puente to include INE president

1 sourcesSep 17, 2026

Spain debates V16 beacon removal amid rising pedestrian accidents

1 sourcesSep 16, 2026

Spanish politician accuses government of selling out Ukraine and Ceuta

1 sourcesSep 16, 2026

Insults chanted at Pedro Sánchez at Formula 1 grandstand

1 sourcesSep 14, 2026

Sánchez focuses on AI and Mamdani's progressivism in New York

1 sourcesSep 20, 2026

+15 more this week