Turning to the cheap ploy of defending his participation in using Article 155 against Catalonia, subsequently suspending the Catalan government and taking over the institutions of Catalan self-government, the prime minister of Spain's PSOE-Unidas Podemos coalition government , Pedro Sánchez, has completed the full 360-degree turn to go back to where he was in autumn 2017. And he did not do this just anywhere, nor at random: but in Seville, at the start of the tour across the geography of Spain with which he intends to reduce the lead that the People's Party (PP) has, with an eye to both the municipal elections next May and the subsequent Spanish elections which, although they do not have a date, must be held in late 2022 or January 2023.
If it weren't for the fact that the Spanish prime minister has lost much of his credit, his strategy to overlap with some of the ground covered by Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP could give him some return. What is happening is that since October 2017 we have seen him play every part in the pantomime: from backing Rajoy to suspend the autonomy of Catalonia (October 2017), moving a motion of no confidence with the pro-independence parties to displace Rajoy from the government (June 2018), breaching agreements with territorial partners to force an early election (April 2019), committing to a dialogue table with Catalonia in order to form his second government (January 2020), leaving the dialogue table stranded without any progress on the pro-independence demands - an amnesty and an agreed referendum, which have not even been addressed, (2020, 2021 and 2022) - and, finally, now, once again, proudly displaying his medals from Article 155.
Sánchez will not remain here. In this tour which goes under the slogan of "The people's government" we will hear him say one thing one day and the opposite the next. Just as in Andalusia he proudly highlights his role in 155 and his alignment with Rajoy "for the love of Spain", in Catalonia or the Basque Country we will hear him say something else. Votes are votes, he must think. Even more so, seeing the latest polls this weekend that leave the PSOE far behind the People's Party, which seems to be riding out without no adversary before it to dispute victory, and with the possibility of achieving an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies with the seats of Vox.
The whistles that the PM received in Seville, until just recently an impregnable PSOE stronghold and an important electoral base, are very significant. Not even the fact of being materially protected, in a security capsule with Socialist sympathizers during a walk through the Andalusian capital, avoided an unpleasant situation. It is true that Moreno Bonilla has turned upside down that Andalusia that seemed capable of voting for only one party, but from there to the fact that it has become an uncomfortable place for Sánchez there is an abyss. The economic situation that is already around the corner will be a very tough litmus test for a government that shows signs of exhaustion and the end of a phase.