The investiture of Pedro Sánchez is racing towards the ridiculous and, dangerously, the fifth-largest economy of the European Union is starting to seem very like a play with a tragic ending. The latest move by Pablo Iglesias, offering himself to PSOE for Sánchez to give them a trial of a year in the cabinet in exchange for Unidas Podemos guaranteeing its support during the four years of the legislature is among the greatest nonsense I've heard in recent weeks. In other words, they kick you out of the executive and you, in response, give them your votes for free for four years. Nobody believes that. Above all because it's very foolish. In that race to win the narrative on the left of the reasons for a new election, the leader of Podemos has braked too late. That said, Sánchez cannot behave as if he had a majority in the Spanish Parliament he doesn't have; but Iglesias shouldn't improvise every day to demonstrate PSOE's lack of will to assemble a coalition government.
It seems the cards have been dealt in the variety show Spanish politics has become and the public argument is that there's no trust to make a new executive. That's true, but if PSOE had surveys which, far from giving them greater gains at the ballot boxes would be predicting bad results, trust would become of second importance. Because Sánchez and Iglesias can't see eye to eye, but nor can Sánchez and Rivera, or Rivera and Casado; between them, they've all gone from adversaries to enemies. With this attitude, so Spanish, there would be no coalition governments anywhere and the public would be subjected to permanent repeated elections until the best conditions possible are achieved. In Catalonia, as a country of pacts, for years coalition governments have been debated, negotiated and agreed. And the existing disagreements, and they are not minor, don't lead to the impossibility of conforming executives.
Sánchez is facing down the last week before the legislature collapses under its own weight and everything heads towards a new election on 10th November and prepared to do a Rajoy if he receives the assignment from king Felipe VI to form a government: leave the offer go as he's no guarantee of being elected. Only a theatrical panic on the part of one of the two contenders could revert this situation which, today, appears very consolidated with daggers drawn. Well, something worse could happen for Sánchez: Iglesias could offer him his votes for free and go across to the opposition, prepared to turn the legislature into agony for PSOE. The objective would be to force another election in a year, in worse scenario for PSOE and hypothetically better for Unidas Podemos. But careful, there's also the right-wing trio. Sánchez would end up fatally wounded but it would be a true civil war in the Spanish left.