In the months following the Spanish general election of April last year, which failed and finally had to be repeated in December, the winner of the election and candidate for re-election kept repeating a phrase to his collaborators which has lately been heard forcefully again: "I need a majority to form a government; to govern is another thing, since unlike what happened to Mariano [Rajoy] there will not be a parliamentary majority to vote no-confidence [in me]." None of the three parties that could facilitate the forming of the new government investiture for free - the PP, Ciudadanos and Podemos - were willing to do so and so the unborn legislature sank in a few months.
A majority to form a government. That was and still is the key. Pedro Sánchez has a government with Podemos that only concerns him as much as it has to, a lot in the sense that he has no alternative, but it would be much less if he did have a choice. And with regard to the majority in Parliament, what can you say? He formed his government with the abstention of the Catalans of ERC and the Basques of Bildu and through a written commitment - on 2nd January - with the former "to create a table for dialogue, negotiation and agreement between [Spanish and Catalan] governments for the resolution of the political conflict" and to "overcome the judicialization of the conflict". A little more than two months later - on March 14th - he decreed a state of alarm and took the opportunity to create a Spain-wide single command and pull the rug out from under the autonomous communities. There has been no power other than his own, he has played cat and mouse with the extensions to the state of alarm, changing allies without flinching in order to reach the destination while paying the cheapest fare. Two weeks ago he embraced Ciudadanos, led by Inés Arrimadas, for the first time; and now he has done it again.
The votes already add up but, at the time of writing, negotiations with ERC and Bildu remain open with the objective of reducing the size of the no block. Before Arrimadas's sí, the aroma was of a return to most of Sánchez's original investiture alliance. Now, after Arrimadas has assured that the agreement with the PSOE includes the paralysis of the Spanish-Catalan dialogue table - which the Sanchez executive denies - it is a little less certain. Above all, because Sánchez's credibility is hovering somewhere down below the fail line.
But, unlike Puerto Rican singer Ozuna and the chorus of his tune Baila baila baila, sung to a woman who has lost in love and needs encouragement to get back out on the dancefloor, in the old school politics of Pedro Sánchez, he is the only one who dances. His political partners - whether stable, provisional or simply temporary - are always at risk. It reminds me of that phrase that radio announcer Jordi Basté says to his interview guests: "Whoever arrives first, takes the seat first." With Sánchez, it's only he himself who can depend on taking the seat. The others are always rotating.