On September 23, Maricarmen Abascal, a partially disabled 87-year-old woman, was evicted from the apartment she rented in Madrid, where she had lived her entire life. Suffering from exhaustion caused by the long struggle to keep her home and then her subsequent eviction, she was admitted to a hospital. That same day, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, an international forum where he has often promoted his foreign policy agenda, beginning with his first visit in 2018, when the politician who had been given the nickname Mr. Handsome met many of his counterparts around the globe. While Abascal would never return to her home (she died on October 7), and her eviction sparked widespread public outrage, Sánchez spoke of reforming international organizations, criticized the United States and Israel, and called for reining in the “tech oligarchs” at the helm of social media platforms and artificial intelligence companies: “The future of our sons and daughters must take precedence over the financial interests of these techno-oligarchs.”

No one in Spain paid attention to the speech: Abascal’s eviction sparked social unrest in a country that boasts of being the fastest-growing in Europe in terms of GDP, a fact on which the Banco de España and the International Monetary Fund agree. This has positioned the country as one of the leading economies in the eurozone, with unemployment having fallen to historic lows, according to official figures. In macroeconomic terms, the country has consistently appealed to international investors during Sánchez’s eight years in office, with foreign investment having grown 34% since 2018, according to calculations by the Ministry of Economy. It’s possible that the Spanish economy is experiencing its best period of growth since the country’s return to democracy in the mid-1970s. However, inflation, housing affordability, and low wages—the minimum wage has risen from 735 euros to 1,221 euros, but has failed to boost salaries broadly—are taking a toll on this economic boom.

And, among voters, there’s a sense of mismanagement during this legislative term. There was the migration crisis in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast that saw the sudden arrival of more than 72,000 migrants in late July. (Ceuta has just over 83,000 residents.) The crisis was not enough to get Sánchez to cut short his vacation. It revealed clashes between the ministers of defense and the interior, and it has taken nearly three months for the situation to be brought fully under control. Political scientist and university professor Lluís Orriols noted in El Periódico that the government had come out “badly” in its handling of crises such as the one in Ceuta and the eviction of Abascal—problems compounded by “legislative paralysis” (the government has managed to pass fewer than 40 laws in this legislative session, down from more than 100 in the previous one) and “corruption.” He asserted that only the strength of the economy had prevented “a government in shambles.”

After elections in 2023, Sánchez managed to secure another term, but without a clear left-wing majority, he had to rely on the support of several right or center-right nationalist parties without a legislative pact, which led to numerous parliamentary defeats. The coalition has failed to provide Spain with an effective government. The international landscape has not been particularly favorable either. Sánchez has gradually lost his key allies: That group of young, charismatic left-wing leaders who seemed to set the global agenda and had a special rapport with the Spanish leader have long since left power—the photos showing the admiration for Sánchez from Sanna Marin of Finland, Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand are now a thing of the past. His rapport with other European leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, a relationship marked by effusive camaraderie since way back in 2018, is of little use now that France is in turmoil and advocates for a return to austerity are gaining power in Europe. Even his relationship with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and one of Sánchez’s main supporters in the European Union, despite their ideological differences, is now of little relevance.