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 Sànchez 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.
Home and away
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.
Ever the pragmatist, Sànchez shifted focus to the international. In the last year or so, Sánchez really took on Trump. He refused to approve the US military use of jointly operated bases to strike Iran, stating: “You cannot answer one illegality with another, because that is how the great catastrophes of humanity begin”. Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state in 2024, with Sànchez labelling Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”, and described Europe’s broader response as a “failure”.
“His foreign policy has taken on a much more important role, showing that [he leads] a government with life,” says Gilmartin. Despite being a social democrat, he has embraced his reputation as the voice and conscious of the international left, hosting, in April, a star-studded left-wing jamboree in Barcelona to reinvigorate international progressive politics.
All of this has helped coalesce support at home, though it hasn’t yet bolstered his domestic popularity significantly.
A winning formula
Eight years in, it’s no great surprise Sánchez’s popularity is on the wane. But his 2023 electoral success is worth considering. In the run up to that vote, he was on the brink of defeat. The right-wing People’s Party led the polls, with far-right Vox primed to come in third. It seemed a right/far-right coalition beckoned. But says Gilmartin, “by framing the vote as him against the far-right,” Sànchez was able to turn the tide, pointing out all the policy gains and social protections that would be under threat otherwise.
Starmer tried this, too, in his 2025 Labour conference speech. But his vision of “patriotic national renewal under the Labour party … or the toxic divide and division of Reform” didn’t land. Starmer couldn’t communicate a coherent vision. He failed to point to policies that voters would miss.
“Polarising against the right works for the centre left if you deliver on cost of living and other material issues,” says Gilmartin. Else, you’re left with the empty progressivism of say, Hillary Clinton taking on Trump. “That’s been proven to not be enough.”
So, what are the lessons for Burnham?
Burnham knows he has to deliver, with less than three years before the next general election. It looked initially that he might be bold on policy: announcing his intent to end homelessness on day one.
But since then, (and in fairness, Burnham did take the reins right before a summer recess), he has gone rather quiet. And on both immigration and the environment – two major wedges between progressives and much of the right – he has said almost nothing at all.
Sànchez took a different tack. One of his first acts as PM was allowing the Aquarius to dock in Valencia: the ship carrying 629 people rescued off the coast of Libya that had been turned away from Italy and Malta. Since then, Sánchez has moved to regularise undocumented migrants in Spain. After 72,000 mostly Moroccans crossed into Ceuta last month, Sànchez didn’t pander to the right, or bow to pan-European pressure. The results are clear: despite recent increases, Spanish people remain relatively unconcerned about immigration. In January, only 3.9% of Spaniards felt immigration was the biggest issue facing Spain; in June, it was 4.8%.
Similarly on climate, Sànchez hasn’t held back. Where Burnham banned BBQs, Sànchez declared “climate change kills”. He’s spending billions on the green transition while Burnham dithers on north sea drilling. “There’s no sense here that you apologise for being proactive and progressive on climate,” says Gilmartin.
In occupying this space, Sànchez has gobbled up the left-wing vote. Sumar, Sánchez’s left-of-PSOE coalition partners has dropped in the polls. When Sánchez first became PSO leader, further-to-the-left Podemos was polled up to 26%; today, it’s hovering at 3%.
Burnham might do well to learn from this: because while Starmer made attacking the left a defining feature of his time in office, Labour lost almost four times as many voters to the Greens than to Reform in the 2026 local elections.
For now, the wait continues to see if Burnham will prove a progressive PM, or at least an impressive pragmatist.
Andy Burnham, the prime minister and former mayor of Greater Manchester, transformed his political fortunes when he left Westminster. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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