Pedro Sánchez has been sworn in as prime minister of Spain at the head of a fragile left-wing coalition government facing economic uncertainty, a secessionist crisis in Catalonia and accusations of undermining national unity.
The ceremony in Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, presided over by King Felipe VI, took place after the Socialist leader won a vote in parliament yesterday by the slimmest margin of victory for a prime minister in decades.
Mr Sánchez’s win, which followed an inconclusive general election in November, ended months of deadlock in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, which is bedevilled by political fragmentation and polarisation.
He joked with the king that his efforts to return to power took “eight months for ten seconds” of the swearing-in ceremony. The monarch said that
