Parliament has allowed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to begin his third term, after long negotiations and uproar over the amnesty plan.

Now Sanchez is once again living up to his image as a political strategist by taking charge once again. However, before the election, it looked like Spain might get a right-wing government from the Popular and Vox parties. Sanchez had brought forward the date of the parliamentary elections after his Socialist Workers’ Party and its partner in the radical leftist coalition suffered major losses in the regional and local elections.

Then the People’s Party emerged as the great victor. After those elections, the Vox Party was able to conclude administrative agreements with the People’s Party in various autonomous regions and municipalities. The Socialists then made Fuchs’s potential share of power at the national level their focus in the parliamentary elections. The strategy worked, because PSOE ultimately scored much better results than expected. Vox lost heavily and the People’s Party won, but less convincingly than expected.

However, the PP and Vox do not view Sánchez as a political strategist, but rather as someone willing to do anything to stay in power. Sánchez was also not initially in favor of amnestying the Catalan separatists. But under pressure from coalition partner Somar and political reality, the agreement has now been reached. He himself says he has come to the conclusion that an amnesty is necessary to normalize political life in Catalonia.