After fighting four general elections in under four years, this January, the radical anti-austerity alliance Unidas Podemos finally entered government. Joining with Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE), it became junior partner in Spain’s first left-wing coalition since the 1930s.

Yet within two months of taking office, the PSOE–Unidas Podemos administration was plunged into an unprecedented national crisis, as Spain became one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, as the second wave rears its head — and Spain posts among the highest rates of infection across the European Union — the coalition has come under sustained pressure from multiple sides.

The Right is pursuing a strategy of polarization against the government, as it seeks to stoke tensions around new COVID restrictions in the hard-hit Madrid region. On Wednesday, the far-right Vox will bring a motion of no confidence in Sánchez’s administration. At the same time, the country’s establishment has also launched a “lawfare” campaign against the coalition, as elements within the judiciary and security forces push for the indictment of various government officials on politically motivated charges.