On March 25th Mr Rajoy's centre-right People's Party (PP) confounded the opinion polls by failing to wrest control of Andalusia, Spain's biggest region, from the Socialists.

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Pablo Zalba also remains an MEP in Spain's centre-right Popular Party (PP).

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Some see a leftist group girding itself to battle a right-wing reformist People's Party (PP) government, led by Mariano Rajoy, that is likely to win power in the next election.

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