Spain’s Sanchez faces tough battle after Madrid loss

Significance

The result led Pablo Iglesias, the founder of Unidas Podemos (UP), which is part of Sanchez’s minority left-wing government, to resign from politics. It also reinforced the national decline of the centre-right Ciudadanos (Cs) party, on which Sanchez has sometimes relied for parliamentary support.

Impacts

• A fresh independence push in Catalonia would boost the electoral prospects of the PP and the far-right Vox party across Spain.
• Whether to cooperate with Vox in government could become the main issue of division within the PP.
• The return to traditional two-party competition between the PP and PSOE would increase the prospect of more stable governments.