Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez has emerged as a leading left-wing European voice on the global stage, implementing progressive policies. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

To international onlookers, Pedro Sánchez appears to have achieved the impossible. Where other European leftist and left-ish premiers have flopped and flailed, the Spanish PM has endured.

Since June 2018, Sánchez has ruled from Madrid, implementing a raft of progressive policies. More recently, he has emerged as a leading, often lone, left-wing European voice on the global stage, striking a defiant tone on everything from the Trump administration's war in Iran ("the smokescreen of war to hide their failure") to Israel's actions in Gaza ("exterminating a defenceless people"). The fact that the international press has nicknamed him El Guapo (the handsome one) can't hurt.

At home, however, it's a more complex story. Sánchez's inner circle is in the midst of a damaging corruption scandal, and polling has his traditionally centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers' party (PSOE) faltering. Meanwhile, recent scenes in Ceuta and apocalyptic wildfires throw up thorny policy challenges. European leaders have publicly turned on Sánchez – and this is with a general election looming next year.

But just like the UK's own prime minister, while Sánchez has carved out a name for himself, he was not always the left-wing figure he is seen as today. For today's First Edition, we ask: who is the real Pedro Sánchez? And, what lessons can Andy Burnham learn from his tenure? Madrid-based journalist Eoghan Gilmartin helps us answer these questions. Before that, the headlines:

Headlines

  • 01**UK economy**: The UK should expect to see a new cost of living crisis, with official figures released this week by the ONS expected to show how soaring energy bills drove up inflation close to 3% in July.
  • 02**Ceuta**: Moroccan police arrested 111 people this weekend, who were trying to enter Spain's north African territory of Ceuta, amid tightened security on both sides after social media posts called for another mass crossing.
  • 03**Jason Arday**: The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday.
  • 04**UK politics**: Andy Burnham is being urged to protect 4 million gig economy workers, who thinktanks warn miss out on key statutory rights including: parental leave, redundancy pay and protection against unfair dismissal.
  • 05**Indonesia**: Rescue crews dug through collapsed buildings and landslide debris in eastern Indonesia on Sunday, searching for bodies after a powerful earthquake killed at least 51 people, and injured more than 100.

Common ground between Burnham and Sánchez

Andy Burnham and Pedro Sánchez share similar origin stories. Both initially entered, then departed, their respective parliaments having failed to achieve their ambitions; both returned, and subsequently secured the top job, after quiet reinvention.

We know the Burnham story now: the former Blairite minister lost out on the Labour leadership, and instead became mayor of one of the UK's largest cities, where he emerged transformed thanks to his vaguely articulated philosophy – Manchesterism.

Sánchez too wasn't always the progressive figurehead he is today. The former economics professor was first elected PSOE leader in 2014, firmly a centrist. "He was the compromise candidate between left and right," says Gilmartin. "There were few expectations of him at the beginning."

His first stint at the party's helm ended in 2016, after a series of electoral drubbings and a messy internal revolt saw him forced out by party grandees. And so marked the start of his remaking: 6ft 3in Sánchez squeezed into his Peugeot and road-tripped across España. "I'll get in my car and travel all round Spain to listen to those who haven't been listened to, to the grassroots members and left-wing voters," Sánchez said.

Beyond Madrid, he morphed into an anti-establishment, man-of-the-people figure. By the summer of 2017, he was PSOE leader again. He formed a government in June 2018, and has been PM since.

"He's not necessarily a committed left-winger," says Gilmartin, "but Sánchez understands that anchoring his party to the left and positioning himself as the leader of a wider progressive bloc is where he can govern. He's a very impressive pragmatist."

In 2019, to shore up support from the left, Sánchez pledged to implement hundreds of progressive policies. And he has broadly delivered on this agenda: investing heavily in renewables, hiking up the minimum wage, extending abortion rights, banning so-called "gay conversion practices", capping rent increases and raising taxes on the super-wealthy while reducing the tax burden on lower earners.

That's not to say Sánchez's leadership has been smooth sailing. A series of corruption scandals involving his brother, wife and predecessor have emerged, many of which the PM had dismissed as "politically motivated smears." Other confidantes have also been accused of taking kickbacks. Meanwhile, his minority coalition government can't muster much support; they've not managed to pass a new budget since 2023. PSOE has lost a string of recent local elections.