Sánchez Defeat Risks EU Shift Right as Spain Sends S&D’s Largest Parliament Bloc
Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · Oct 6
Sánchez Defeat Risks EU Shift Right as Spain Sends S&D’s Largest Parliament Bloc
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO Europe · Oct 6
Summary
Spain’s snap election could weaken the EU center-left by removing Pedro Sánchez, the only Socialist-aligned leader now governing a large member state.
Sánchez has given Brussels’ Socialists and Democrats a counterweight in a Council dominated by the center right, helping shape deals at leader level.
Spain also supplies the S&D group’s largest national delegation in the European Parliament, and Spanish MEPs have often carried Sánchez-backed compromises through internal resistance.
Senior S&D lawmakers say a change of government in Madrid would break that alignment and could push the group into a more confrontational stance in Brussels.
Polls point to a center-right People’s Party-led government, likely with far-right Vox support, raising the prospect of a broader rightward shift in EU politics.