After Re-election, A Parliamentary Setback For Spain's PM

Pedro Sanchez returned to power in November for a four-year term after finally managing to put together a working coalition following an inconclusive general election in July that resulted in a hung parliament (Credit: AFP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday suffered a setback in the first key parliamentary vote of the new legislature, highlighting the extreme fragility of the parliamentary alliances that returned him to office in November.

In a closely fought vote on three government decrees, lawmakers passed two of them by the narrowest of margins (172 to 171).