Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers a statement at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid. | SUSANA VERA

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... was - just - Pedro Sánchez. Two votes secured his investiture and transformed him from acting at being prime minister into the real thing. As he has had a good amount of time in an acting role, he should by now be quite adept at being number one.

There is one big difference, though, and this comes in the form of his government partners. Podemos must now prove that they can be more than an acting political party by demonstrating an understanding of the responsibility of government.

Do they have the experience? Sánchez once thought that they did not, but necessity - for Sánchez - has been the mother of governmental invention.