One selection, two Spaniards: PP and Vox turn the victory of 'la Roja' into another offensive against Sánchez

Pedro Sánchez enters the final stretch of his mandate without approved budgets, facing uncertainty and with courts setting the pace. The Congress has adjourned until September, and despite predictions of political collapse, the legislative session will continue after summer. With more noise, likely new court rulings, and a government in minority, Sánchez remains determined to see through the end of his term unless an unexpected shift occurs. Without budgets, with few certainties, and with the judiciary shaping the path, the prime minister is resolved to press on, ignoring those in opposition who view the summer merely as a delay before an inevitable end. Regardless, Sánchez faces the last months of a legislature in which, with parliamentary arithmetic that never gave him a comfortable majority, he had to sweat over every detail of each initiative. Despite this, he has maintained the welfare state through decrees, negotiating vote by vote each approval against a right-wing bloc, PP, Vox, Junts, determined to systematically block any project, even those aimed at easing citizens' problems, such as the extension of rental contracts. Remember? The government passed it by decree in March to protect tenants from rising prices, only for it to fall a month later due to the joint rejection of PP, Vox, and Junts, who prioritized their party interests and those of large property owners over protecting hundreds of thousands of families. Far from giving up, the executive is already working on an expanded version, offering new guarantees for seasonal rentals and rooms, and once again negotiating with parliamentary groups in search of support before submitting it for another vote. The same pattern explains the failure of other decrees, such as the one aiming to cap prices of essential goods during emergencies like the flood in Valencia or the tragedy in Adamuz. Also the decree on urgent economic, tax, transport, and Social Security measures, including the extension of anti-vulnerability measures and travel assistance that expired in January 2025, just like the temporary energy tax. On the other side of the coin, despite constant obstruction, the government has managed to approve dozens of anti-crisis decrees that reached their destination, such as the pension increase, measures to cushion the impact of the energy crisis caused by the war in the Middle East, the Sustainable Mobility decree, the one on forest agents and firefighters, and the one on the efficiency of the public justice service. Laws have also been passed for the creation of the State Agency for Public Health, the one regulating customer service, the law on the social economy, the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecution Service, or the one prohibiting conversion therapies, a historic demand of the LGTBI movement that no right-wing majority would have brought forward. Despite the PP's strategy of obstruction and tension, strictly following a program whose sole chapter is 'antisanchismo,' the government has approved since the start of the legislature two constitutional amendments (articles 49 and the third paragraph of 69), 32 laws, and validated 40 decrees. All within a context where each parliamentary vote is celebrated as a victory of negotiation over noise. Economy as the engine of the mandate But if anything refutes the narrative of paralysis that the opposition tries to impose are the economic data, after the government raised its growth forecast for 2026 to 2.6%, far above the European average. The labor market is probably the greatest success of this legislature, with affiliation remaining at historical highs and registered unemployment having dropped below 2.3 million people, the clearest evidence that the 2022 labor reform continues to deliver results. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has turned his assessment of the political year into a rebuttal of Pedro Sánchez. The president of the PP has portrayed the head of government as ultimately responsible for the political, parliamentary, and ethical deterioration affecting Spain, positioning him as the "X factor" behind corruption impacting the socialist environment. "The X factor is Sanchez himself and his complete lack of moral standards," Feijóo stated, describing the prime minister as the "political corrupting link" in a network that includes former minister José Luis Ábalos, his former advisor Koldo García, and former PSOE Secretary of Organization Santos Cerdán. The conservative leader did not provide evidence directly linking Sánchez to the investigated crimes, but insisted that the president knew the backgrounds and actions of those in his circle of trust. "If a man does not know what happens in his house, he is unfit for public life," he concluded. Feijóo also accused former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of teaching "altruism and peace" for years while maintaining business ties with dictatorships and hinted that he intervened in economic operations thanks to his relationship with the government. "Without Sánchez’s government, Zapatero wouldn’t have been able to commit crimes," he claimed, although there is no judicial conviction allowing this accusation to be presented as a proven fact. When asked about these remarks, Feijóo avoided correcting them. "I am not judge Calama, I am a democrat and accept the opinions of judges," he replied. A Government exhausted, blocked, and disabled Feijóo placed the origin of the political crisis in Sánchez's decision to "govern at any cost." According to the conservative leader, this strategy marked the legislature through "scandals, convictions, bribes, incompetence, jail, and broken promises." "Three years ago, Pedro Sánchez chose to govern at any cost, and Spain has paid for it three years," he said. For Feijóo, the political year was not just "a difficult year," but confirmation that Sánchez's era "has ended." The conservative leader asserted that the government has lost public support and cited the results of recent regional elections as proof of a political change. "People don't want this government. It's not a trend, it's a verdict," he claimed, dismissing the government as a coalition that is "politically exhausted, parliamentarily blocked, and completely ethically disabled." The conservative also questioned the government's ability to maintain a parliamentary majority. According to his account, the legislature began conditioned by the demands of various partners and ended subjected solely to Sánchez's interests. "It started restricted by several minorities and now not even that, it is restricted by the interests of a single person, Mr. Sánchez," he pointed out. Feijóo recalled pending parliamentary initiatives and ignored requests for appearances to argue that the government can no longer fulfill its own commitments. The president of the PP emphasized that the legislature lacks a viable political exit and assured that the PP is now activating "the countdown for change" and that Spain has decided to open a new era. His speech, however, did not include any specific proposals to force early elections or mention the possibility of pushing for a motion of censure. Nor did he address the possibility of the PSOE ending up indicted as a legal entity. "I don't know," he replied, though he added that there are "considerations, facts, and data" in the investigations that, if proven, could lead to new judicial actions. Feijóo stressed that the PP is prepared.