Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's snap general election call breaks apart the coalition he built with the far-left United We Can party, marking a line in the sand with a movement born from grassroots activism whose electoral fortunes have nosedived.
MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s snap general election call breaks apart the coalition he built with the far-left United We Can party, marking a line in the sand with a movement born from grassroots activism whose electoral fortunes have nosedived.
Ernesto Pascual, a political scientist and professor at UOC university in Barcelona, said the prime minister wanted to force the hand of the poorly performing, squabbling groupings to the left of his own party, to clarify who had the capacity and will to govern the country. Although the Socialists’ overall vote share remained largely steady in the local and regional vote, the dire performance of United We Can across the country leaves the coalition with a questionable mandate to continue.
The party was founded by Spain’s precursor to the Occupy protest movement, and was originally led by university professor Pablo Iglesias. Tackling the austerity politics imposed by the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, United We Can promised policy drawn from grassroots activism, and grew to become a national force.
Since then, the PSOE and United We Can openly split over reforms the Socialists ordered to a controversial sexual consent law, which had opened a loophole for rapists to have their sentences reduced.
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