The premiership of Pedro Sánchez began when he was sworn in as Prime Minister of Spain by King Felipe VI on 2 June 2018. Pedro Sánchez is the first prime minister in the recent Spanish history to reach the premiership after succeeding in a vote of no confidence against a ruling prime minister. He was also the first prime minister elected by Parliament without being a member of parliament.
During his speech as alternative candidate in the vote of no confidence, Sánchez said he planned to form a government that would eventually dissolve the Cortes Generales and call for a general election, but he did not specify when he would do it, while also saying that before calling for an election he intended take a series of measures like increasing unemployment benefits and proposing a law of equal pay between the sexes. However, he also said he would uphold the 2018 budget made by the Rajoy government, a condition the Basque Nationalist Party imposed to vote for the motion of no-confidence. Eventually, Sánchez was forced to resign when Parliament rejected the 2019 budget bill and he called for snap election.
After two general elections, Sánchez reached an agreement with the far-left Unidas Podemos electoral alliance in January 2020, forming Spain's first coalition government since the Second Republic (1931–1939). On 7 October 2020, Sanchez presented a financial plan for the remainder of his term in office that went beyond drafting a new budget and predicted the creation of 800,000 jobs over the next three years. He did not manage to finish his term, as he resigned again after the bad electoral results of the May 2023 local and regional elections, and asked the King to dissolve Parliament. Following the general election on 23 July 2023, Sánchez once again formed a coalition government, this time with Sumar (successors of Unidas Podemos).
Sánchez's premiership has been marked by several international events that have harmed Spanish interests, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the fall of Kabul, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the political instability in Latin America and the Gaza war, among others. At the same time, domestic events such as the Storm Filomena and the Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption has also caused trouble during his premiership. In any case, Sánchez's policies have had a markedly pro-European character, and the prime minister's economic policy has been characterized by an increase in public spending and taxes, as well as direct opposition to the austerity policy carried out during the 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis. Equality has been one of the most important elements, having increased minimum wage and promoted new laws against sexual assaults, an expansion of the abortion law and the approval of the trans law. In this sense, Sánchez has always maintained a balanced cabinet of men and women.
The opposition has criticized him for his pacts with regional parties, mainly of pro-independence ideology. These criticisms increased with the formation of his third government, since measures such as an amnesty law for Catalan independentists condemned by the 2017 illegal independence referendum caused numerous protests in the streets.
Inauguration
Sánchez was appointed by the King on 1 June 2018 and took office the following day in his presence. Present at the ceremony, as is tradition, were former prime minister Mariano Rajoy, the First Notary of the Kingdom, Rafael Catalá, and the rest of the country's main authorities. Spanish media noted that while Sánchez was swearing his oath of office on the Spanish Constitution, no Bible nor crucifix were on display, for the first time in modern Spanish history due to Sánchez's atheism. After being sworn in, Sánchez announced that he would only propose measures that had considerable parliamentary support, and reaffirmed the government's compliance with the EU deficit requirements. The 17 ministers of his new cabinet took office on 7 June 2018. Sánchez formed a cabinet with 11 of the 18 ministerial positions of the Council being held by women.
Domestic policy
Exhumation of Franco On 18 June 2018, Sánchez' government announced its intention to remove the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos. On 29 June 2018, the Archdiocese of Madrid warned the Spanish government against any plans to exhume the remains of Franco without first obtaining agreement from interested parties and formally stated it is against any move of Franco's remains without the consent of his family and before consultation with the Catholic Church. In addition, in its statement the Archdiocese of Madrid re-affirmed its position that although the Valle de los Caídos is officially a national monument, the Catholic Church must be consulted on burial-related matters under agreements between the Spanish state and the Vatican. The announcement of the Archdiocese of Madrid was made after Pedro Sánchez confirmed that it was his intention to remove the remains of Franco from the Valle de los Caídos by the end of July.
On 24 August 2018, Sánchez's cabinet approved a decree that modified two aspects of the 2007 Historical Memory Law to allow the exhumation of Franco's remains from the Valle de los Caídos. The decree, to become law, had to be passed by a vote of the Congress of Deputies. The conservative People's Party (PP) and the centre-right party Ciudadanos (Cs) announced they would not support the decree. The PP further stated it would appeal the measure to the Constitutional Court arguing that using a decree to change the Historical Memory Law was not valid because the proposed modifications to the Historical Memory Law did not respond to a situation of urgent need. Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo stated the decree law required the exhumation of the remains of Franco to take place between 30 days and 12 months of passage by the Congress of Deputies. The Congress of Deputies voted in favor of the exhumation on 13 September 2018. After a year of legal battles with Franco's descendants, the exhumation took place on 24 October 2019, and Franco was reburied at Mingorrubio Cemetery in El Pardo with his wife Carmen Polo.
In November 2018, the Mossos d'Esquadra reported the arrest of a Terrassa resident who was angry with the exhumation plans. He had an arsenal of 16 firearms at home, and carried two guns in his car, one of them modified. The man allegedly planned to kill Sánchez in order to finish, in his own words, with that "shitty red".
Snap election and deadlock
After the rejection of his budget, Sánchez called an early general election for 28 April 2019, making a television announcement in which he declared that "between doing nothing and continuing with the [former] budget and calling on Spaniards to have their say, I chose the second. Spain needs to keep advancing, progressing with tolerance, respect, moderation and common sense".
The PSOE won the election, obtaining 29% of the vote which translated into 123 seats in the Congress of Deputies, well over the 85 seats and 23% share of the vote the party obtained in the 2016 election. PSOE also won a majority in the Senate. Whilst the PSOE were 53 seats short of the 176 seats needed for an outright majority in the Congress of Deputies, a three-way split in the centre-right vote assured that it was the only party that could realistically form a government.
On 6 June 2019, King Felipe VI, having previously held prospective meetings with the spokespeople of the political groups with representation in the new Congress of Deputies, formally proposed Sánchez as prospective prime minister. Sánchez accepted the task of trying to form a government "with honor and responsibility". Several weeks of negotiations with Podemos ended in an agreement that Sánchez would appoint several Podemos members to the Cabinet, although not the party's leader Pablo Iglesias. But in the final voting session, Podemos rejected the agreement and led Sánchez to try a second chance to be inaugurated in September.
Catalan separatism Sánchez said he would "reinstate dialogue" with the Catalan independence movement. In order to do so, the central government and the regional government reactivated intergovernmental commissions, a series of bodies composed by representatives of both governments. Although there was some progress in the economic field, these commissions were paralyzed by the Catalonia regional government's demand to speak about a self-determination referendum, something that the central government rejected and in February 2019 the central government considered the relations between the two governments broken. In December 2018, the FT reported that Sánchez "has warned Catalonia's government that he could deploy national police to the region, as tension flares up again between Madrid and Catalan separatists a year after a failed secession attempt". The distance between the two governments became clear when the parliamentary opposition—among which was Catalan separatism—rejected the government's budget. After this, the prime minister called a snap election.
After the sentence in 2019 trial of Catalonia independence leaders Sánchez confirmed its support for the sentence, and denied possibility of any indulgence, proclaiming that the sentence should be served by convicts in its entirety, in spite of that two years later Sánchez granted indulgence to all convicts. Shortly after granting the indulgence, Sánchez stressed that, despite that, there never will be a referendum for the independence of Catalonia, in response he was mocked by Gabriel Rufian and other Catalan politicians, who reminded that two years before he claimed the same with regards to the indulgence, and insinuated that it is just a matter of time before Sánchez will break his latest claims.
COVID-19 pandemic
On 13 March 2020, Sánchez announced a declaration of the state of alarm in the nation for a period of 15 days, to become effective the following day after the approval of the Council of Ministers, becoming the second time in democratic history and the first time with this magnitude. The following day imposed a nationwide lockdown, banning all trips that were not force majeure and announced it may intervene in companies to guarantee supplies. On 14 July 2021, the Constitutional Court, acting upon the 2020'th appeal by Vox, sentenced by a narrow majority (6 votes in support vs. 5 votes against) that the state of alarm was inconstitutional in the part of suppressing the freedom of movement established by the Article 19 of the Constitution.
Social media On 3 February 2026, Sánchez announced plans to restrict access to social media platforms for users under the age of 16 during the World Governments Summit in Dubai. Following the announcement, X owner Elon Musk responded by labeling Sánchez a "tyrant" and a "fascist totalitarian."
Economic policy Bank consolidation In early September 2020, state-controlled bank Bankia and Caixabank announced that they were very close to a deal to merge both banks. That merge would create the biggest domestic bank in Spain, surpassing Santander and BBVA. Unidas Podemos, the coalition partner of the second Sánchez government and its leader, Second Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias rejected the merger describing it as a "privatization" and criticized that Third Deputy Prime Minister Calviño never revealed to them the existence of this talks.