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In Spain, the new government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has taken the oath to King Felipe. The first coalition government in more than 40 years only came into existence after two elections in one year.
It took two parliamentary elections in one year to get this government going. After the April 2019 elections, the Social Democratic PSOE and the radical left Podemos Unidas failed to look each other in the eye and form a government.
The November elections changed that. The two parties together had fewer seats than after the previous elections and now clearly recognised the need for cooperation.
The new Spanish government is the first coalition government in more than 40 years. That will be a challenge anyway because no Spanish politician of the current generation has any experience with that.
Moreover, it is a minority government, together the PSOE and Podemos Unidas have only 155 of the 350 seats in the Spanish parliament.
Their government only came with the support of some regional parties, such as the separatist Catalan party ERC of the convicted Oriol Junqueras.
