Spanish PM facing first threats from allies

Bloomberg

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is already facing pushback from the multi-coloured alliance that put him into office less than three weeks ago.
In his first question and answer session at the Parliament in Madrid, a left-wing group from the Valencia region complained that Sanchez is backing away from plans to reform the regional financing system and questioned whether it had been worth helping him to oust the center-right People’s Party.
“We are subsidising richer regions,” said Joan Baldovi, one of four lawmakers from Compromis. “We didn’t vote for
you just to do the same as the People’s Party.”
With a highly decentralised political structure, Spain’s 200 billion-euro ($230 billion) regional financing system is one of the prickliest issues facing the prime minister, underlying everything from the Catalan crisis to the internal tensions in his Socialist party.
The premier backtracked on a promise to address imbalances in the system in testimony to the Senate, saying he won’t have time to complete the process in the two years left in the current parliament.
His predecessor Mariano Rajoy’s government had been looking at changes to the system since 2014.
The problem for Sanchez is that elections are due in the Socialists’ Andalusia heartlands within the next year.