Spanish PM Sanchez to face no confidence vote – Photo: AP

Spain’s parliament is expected to vote on a motion of censure against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government today.

The vote came from the far-right VOX party, which blames Sanchez’s coalition government—made up of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and other minor left-wing parties—for bad governance on several issues, including the handling of Catalan separatists. The motion is supported by former Spanish communist leader and economist Ramon Tamames, who proposed to call early elections for May. However, this vote is unlikely to pass, given that only the 52 VOX lawmakers of Spain’s 350 Lower House legislators can be counted on to vote in favor—as happened in VOX’s 2020 failed attempt at dismissing Sánchez.

Expect VOX to try to exploit this vote for the upcoming May municipal elections. The elections will be a litmus test for Sanchez’s left-wing coalition, which also faces a general election this December. Sanchez will hope to capitalize on his government hosting Spain’s EU Council Presidency during the second half of 2023. However, given the coalition’s ongoing infighting on whether to support Ukraine with arms, the opposition will likely seek to leverage this situation. The conservative People’s Party—the PSOE’s most serious competitor—will attempt to replicate its 2022 electoral success of Andalusia, when it won an outright majority in regional elections.