On Wednesday, Spanish labor minister Yolanda Díaz announced that she won’t be a candidate for office again in 2027. Long a popular representative of the radical left, Díaz’s decision to step back strikingly illustrates the troubled waters in this political space ahead of next year’s general election.

Díaz is the founder-leader of left-wing alliance Sumar, the junior partner in the national government headed by Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE). Her presence in government alongside four other Sumar ministers has been key in pushing Sánchez’s administration toward better positions than his European counterparts on both domestic and foreign policy.

For many on the European radical left, Díaz — and even the government as a whole — has an enviable record. Since 2020, after all, this government has strengthened workers’ rights, raised the minimum wage, pushed the green agenda, imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel, and done much more than other NATO states to resist the rise in military spending imposed by Donald Trump.