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There seems to be enough indications that point to Pedro Sánchez's decision to implode next Monday's investiture and go to new elections next 10th November if Pablo Iglesias does not go the way he wants. Although seemingly unbelievable to any European country's political standards, the refusal of a coalition government in Spain is about to wreck the good results obtained by the Spanish left on 28th April general elections. Pedro Sánchez's interview early this weekend has clarified PSOE's current and only goal: pushing to avoid Pablo Iglesias being a minister to the max so that there is a one-party government or, at most, one with a gentle Unidas Podemos' touch in some smaller portfolio from among those that are not considered State portfolios like these are, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Justice or Interior.

To keep this kind of narrative, Sánchez is prepared to do anything, not just leaving Podemos out of the Executive. Even to endorse Mariano Rajoy’s speech defending a government that shall not depend on the pro-independence forces and that, if necessary, can again apply Article 155 -a legalised takeover of Catalonia’s self-government. Sánchez's is repeatedly questioning whether Podemos would do it, in order to discredit them. A government that has the frontispiece of the unity of Spain above electoral results, or before trying to find a negotiated solution to the so-called Catalan conflict, which is, increasingly, a Spanish conflict. This is why Sánchez resorts to right wing Partido Popular (PP) and Ciudadanos (Cs) by challenging them to abstain and so that Podemos' votes do not end up having any real arithmetic value in the investiture. In fact, Sánchez never wanted a coalition government, or a stable parliamentary agreement, even though he could hardly refuse the latter. From the beginning he has tried an investiture majority knowing that there is no majority that can present a motion of censure in four years and that the fewer commitments he assumes the easier it will be for him to be able to practice a variable geometry with the rest of the parties: social initiatives with Podemos, and economic issues and above all, the EU imposed budget discipline, with PP and/or Cs and the Judiciary’s nominations or others within this dimension, as always with the PP.

Sánchez is trying to ignore the fact that his 123 seats are far from the majority in the Spanish Congress, which has 176 deputies. This would not be an obstacle to any other country, but it is in Spain. Dialogue, agreements and pacts are far from the Spanish political culture. Therefore, Sanchez would find a democratic consultation like that of Iglesias with Podemos' grassroots, a democratic masquerade, simply because he assumes that he will not like the result. And thus, he is breaking negotiations with Iglesias that have never really existed. The advantage in Spanish politics is that a survey can change everything and what seems to be broken today, may be different on the morrow.