Spanish election threatens to blow up Brussels’ political balance

BRUSSELS — A defeat for Pedro Sánchez in Spain’s snap election risks destabilizing the EU by putting the Socialists and Democrats on the back foot in Brussels and pushing them into a more confrontational stance. Sánchez, the only Socialist-aligned leader currently running a large EU country, has provided a center-left counterweight to decisions in a Council largely dominated by the center right. Spain’s lawmakers form the S&D’s largest national delegation in the European Parliament, and when Sánchez strikes a Council deal, Spanish MEPs can usually carry his position through the group, even over internal opposition. A change of government in Madrid would disrupt that arrangement, senior S&D lawmakers told POLITICO.