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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Surreal claims, lawfare and abuse: toxic politics in Spain reflect the new Europe

Customers sit at tables at a cafe, some of them drinking coffee, as a TV mounted above a fridge shows Pedro Sánchez delivering an address
A TV at a cafe in Madrid shows Pedro Sánchez delivering an address on Monday in which he pledged to remain in office. Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP

Pedro Sánchez may have decided to stay on as Spanish prime minister, but what made him hesitate – “harassment and bullying” of him and his wife by his political opponents – is unlikely to go away anytime soon, in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.

In an ever more polarised political sphere and on a social media battlefield where reality coexists with the wildest fictions, politicians across the continent have to live – or not – with being targets of surreal accusations, “lawfare” and increasingly ugly abuse.

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