Spain PM Sánchez sets snap election for April

Spain PM Sánchez sets snap election for April. Oh dear. It looks like the right wing could take power in Spain.

While the end of Pedro Sánchez's tenure looked inevitable, following his parliamentary budget defeat, this adds further uncertainty to a fragmented Spanish political landscape.

His PSOE is leading many polls and could win this election, but might find it hard to form a majority and govern.

The leftist Podemos, the PSOE's natural ally, is riven by infighting and struggling in polls.

With the Catalonia issue likely to dominate the upcoming campaign, the hardline pro-unity stance of parties on the right - the PP and Ciudadanos - could see them benefit. If the numbers add up, they could try to form a majority, possibly with the support of far-right Vox, which has enjoyed a surge in polls, due mainly to its uncompromising policy on Catalan independence.

Those damned Catalan nationalists.

I truly hate giving any credence to Russia conspiracy talk, but this story about alleged Russian agent Sergey Vyacheslavovich Fedotov flying into Barcelona twice in the run-up to the Catalonia referendum is mildly interesting. However, the time-table that the article gives for this man's movements relating to various events is a little sketchy.