Spain is not happy. Even on the left there are voters and supporters who are not best pleased that the prime minister cut a deal to return to power with the pro-Catalan independence party Junts, whose leader Carles Puigdemont is, or was, considered a political outlaw after he fled Spanish justice in 2017 and is still living in Waterloo, Belgium avoiding arrest on returning to Spain.
Early on, when the centre-right Partido Popular failed to win a clear majority, even members on the left were calling for Sánchez to form a a grand coalition between Spain’s centre-left and centre-right.
However, the latter had jumped into bed with the far-right Vox party and had already formed a number of key regional governments together. So the PP could not suddenly turn their back on them, while Sánchez was shackled by far-left members of his former coalition government and vice-president.
Now with Junts part of the grand scheme of the political future, even the all-important PNV Basque Nationalist Party, which backed Sánchez, doubts he will be able to keep the coalition together.
Giving into Junts may prove to be his downfall. His ratings have already fallen in the polls and the PP are not taking his decision to agree to pass an Amnesty Law for the likes of Puigdemont lightly; they are taking legal action to block it. Then what?