The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 left Spain scrambling to reassemble a broken economy and combat soaring unemployment. European austerity measures and Catalonian dreams of independence have since occupied all of Madrid’s bandwidth and effectively back-seated Spanish foreign policy for over a decade. With the rise of Pedro Sánchez and the wounds of the financial crisis healing, Madrid has turned its attention back to Brussels, and is ready to assume the role of a leading power in Europe.
All in Spain
On the 1st of June, the social democratic party PSOE passed a vote of no confidence against then-President Mariano Rajoy in Congress and successfully installed the party leader Pedro Sánchez as President of Spain, leading a minority government. Although Sánchez’s arrival in La Moncloa was well received in the wider European political community, he has little time to make change before calling for new elections.