Pedro Sanchez (left) shakes hands with out-going PM Mariano Rajoy

Socialist Pedro Sanchez took over as Spain's prime minister yesterday, after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote triggered by a long-running corruption trial involving members of his centre-right party. Socialist party head Sanchez becomes Spain's seventh Prime Minister since its return to democracy in the late 1970s following the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.