Premiership of Pedro Sánchez

The premiership of Pedro Sánchez began when Sánchez was sworn in as Prime Minister of Spain by King Felipe VI on 2 June 2018 and is currently ongoing. He is the first prime minister in the recent Spanish history to reach the premiership after succeeding in a vote of no confidence against a ruling prime minister. He was also the first prime minister elected by Parliament without being a member of parliament.

During his speech as alternative candidate in the vote of no confidence, he said he planned to form a government that would eventually dissolve the Cortes Generales and call for a general election, but he did not specify when he would do it while also saying that before calling for an election he intended take a series of measures like increasing unemployment benefits and proposing a law of equal pay between the sexes. However, he also said he would uphold the 2018 budget made by the Rajoy government, a condition the Basque Nationalist Party imposed to vote for the motion of no-confidence. Eventually, Sánchez was forced to resign when Parliament rejected the 2019 budget bill and he called for snap election.

After two general elections, in January 2020 Sánchez reached an agreement with the far-left Unidas Podemos electoral alliance, forming Spain's first coalition government since the Second Republic (1931–1939). On 7 October 2020, Sanchez presented a financial plan for the remainder of his term in office that went beyond drafting a new budget and predicted the creation of 800,000 jobs over the next three years. He did not manage to finish his term, as he resigned again after the bad electoral results of the May 2023 local and regional elections, and asked the King to dissolve Parliament. Following the general election on 23 July 2023, Sánchez once again formed a coalition government, this time with Sumar (successors of Unidas Podemos).

Sánchez's premiership has been marked by several international events that have harmed Spanish interests, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the fall of Kabul, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the political instability in Latin America and the Gaza war, among others. At the same time, domestic events such as the Storm Filomena and the Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption has also caused trouble during his premiership. In any case, Sánchez's policies have had a markedly pro-European character, and the prime minister's economic policy has been characterized by an increase in public spending and taxes, as well as direct opposition to the austerity policy carried out during the 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis. Equality has been one of the most important elements, having increased minimum wage and promoted new laws against sexual assaults, an expansion of the abortion law and the approval of the trans law. In this sense, Sánchez has always maintained a balanced cabinet of men and women.

The opposition has criticized him for his pacts with regional parties, mainly of pro-independence ideology. These criticisms increased with the formation of his third government, since measures such as an amnesty law for Catalan independentists condemned by the 2017 illegal independence referendum caused numerous protests in the streets.