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Will Pedro Sánchez be the next of this group of world leaders to leave office before 2027?

Resolution: Updated:

In short

The market treats this as unlikely. Sánchez has already survived multiple no-confidence motions and faces no mandatory election before 2027, which keeps the probability low. A shift would most likely come from a budget collapse, a Junts or ERC withdrawal of support, or a damaging new finding in the corruption cases touching his family and party.

Editorial illustration for: Will Pedro Sánchez be the next of this group of world leaders to leave office before 2027?

How the contract works

A contract on this question settles at $1 if Sánchez permanently leaves the office of Spanish Prime Minister before 1 January 2027 and he is the first of the named leaders to do so; it settles at nothing if he does not, or if another leader in the group exits first, or if none of them leave office in that window. A resignation announcement alone does not count, nor does an election loss before the actual handover of power, nor a temporary suspension. The price at any moment reflects what buyers and sellers currently think the chance is — a contract priced at 0.30, for example, would imply the market sees roughly a three-in-ten chance, not that the outcome is confirmed. Positions can generally be sold before the 1 January 2027 settlement date at whatever price the market has moved to by then.
What the market thinks happens
$100
Yes18%

The event happens

Costs now
$0.18
If you put in $100
$556
No82%

The event does not happen

Costs now
$0.82
If you put in $100
$122

Probability

History starts collecting once the event is tracked

How the price has moved

The consensus figure of 18% reflects trading limited to a single venue, Polymarket, with $45,796 in total volume. That volume level is modest for a politically salient question, suggesting a market that has settled on a view without heavy ongoing repricing. No venue-to-venue spread is observable here because only one venue currently lists the contract, and no detailed day-by-day or week-by-week move history is available to attribute to specific events; any claim about a short-term swing would be speculation rather than reporting.

Analysis

Context

Pedro Sánchez has led Spain since 2018 and was reelected in July 2023 after forming a minority coalition with Sumar that depends on smaller Catalan and Basque parties, including Junts and ERC, for a parliamentary majority. That dependency has made budget votes and legislative business repeatedly precarious, with Junts threatening withdrawal of support on several occasions over Catalan amnesty and funding disputes. Spain's next general election is not constitutionally due until 2027, so any early exit would require either a successful no-confidence motion, a coalition collapse forcing a snap election, or Sánchez's own resignation. Sánchez's government has also been dogged by corruption investigations reaching close to him, including judicial probes into his wife Begoña Gómez, his brother David Sánchez, and former Socialist party organisational secretary Santos Cerdán, who was arrested in 2025. Opposition parties PP and Vox have repeatedly called for his resignation over these cases, though none have yet produced a parliamentary majority to remove him. This contract is part of a broader comparison: it asks whether Sánchez, specifically, will be the first among a named group of leaders — including Lula, Xi Jinping, Trump, Macron, French PM Sébastien Lecornu, Erdoğan, Díaz-Canel and Zelenskyy — to leave office before 1 January 2027. Several of those figures face their own instability, notably France, where Lecornu's government has already wobbled more than once since his appointment.
The consensus price across tracked venues sits at 18%, all of it on Polymarket, where $45,796 has traded on this contract. That is a modest volume for a politically prominent question, which signals the market has formed a view but without the depth of conviction seen in heavily traded contracts — individual trades can still move the price noticeably. Because only one venue currently lists this market, there is no cross-venue spread to read for disagreement; the number stands on its own. The case for a low probability rests on structural facts rather than sentiment. Spain's next general election is not due until 2027, so there is no calendar event forcing Sánchez out. He has already faced and survived no-confidence attempts during this term, and his coalition partners — Junts, ERC, PNV — have repeatedly chosen to extract concessions on budgets and legislation rather than bring the government down outright, since several of them have little electoral incentive to trigger a snap election that could favour PP and Vox. What could move the price upward is concrete and traceable: a loss of the 2026 budget vote without a workaround, a formal Junts withdrawal of parliamentary support, or a new judicial development in the cases around Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez or Santos Cerdán that implicates Sánchez directly rather than people around him. Any of these would be a specific, dated, reportable event, not a vague shift in approval ratings, and the market would likely reprice quickly once it happened. The comparison group also matters for this specific contract, since it does not ask simply whether Sánchez leaves, but whether he leaves first. Lecornu's premiership in France has already shown more acute instability in 2025 and 2026 than Sánchez's government, and Macron retains the constitutional power to reshuffle his prime minister again, which gives the market another plausible 'first exit' candidate competing against Sánchez for this outcome.

What moves the probability

  1. Fixed election calendar

    Spain's next general election is not constitutionally required until 2027, so there is no built-in deadline pushing Sánchez toward an earlier departure. This structural fact is the single biggest reason the probability sits low.

  2. Coalition partner leverage

    Junts and ERC have repeatedly used budget and legislative votes to extract concessions rather than collapse the government, since triggering an early election carries its own electoral risk for them. A genuine withdrawal of support, rather than brinkmanship, would be the clearest upward driver.

  3. Corruption investigations

    Judicial cases touching Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez and Santos Cerdán have generated sustained opposition pressure and headlines, but none has yet produced a parliamentary majority against Sánchez himself. A finding that directly implicates him would move this driver sharply.

  4. Competing instability in France

    Sébastien Lecornu's government has faced repeated instability since his appointment as French prime minister, giving the 'first to leave' framing of this contract a real competitor. If Lecornu or Macron's own position collapses first, Sánchez cannot resolve Yes regardless of his own standing.

  5. Thin trading volume

    With $45,796 traded on a single venue, the market has limited depth. This means the price can shift on relatively small trading activity rather than only on new political information.

The case for

  • A rejected 2026 budget without a fallback mechanism could force Sánchez to call an early election and leave office before the handover deadline.
  • A formal withdrawal of support by Junts or ERC would remove his parliamentary majority and could lead to a successful no-confidence motion.
  • A judicial finding directly implicating Sánchez, rather than family members or party officials, in the ongoing corruption cases could make his position untenable within his own party.
  • Sustained PP and Vox pressure combined with declining coalition cohesion could accumulate into a resignation before 1 January 2027.

The case against

  • Spain's next general election is not due until 2027, leaving no calendar-driven trigger for an earlier exit.
  • Sánchez has already survived multiple no-confidence attempts during this term without losing his majority.
  • Coalition partners have consistently chosen to negotiate concessions rather than bring down the government, since a snap election carries risk for them too.
  • Other leaders in the comparison group, particularly in France, show comparable or greater institutional instability, which could see one of them exit first even if Sánchez's position weakens.

What to watch

The clearest near-term triggers are Spain's 2026 budget process, any formal statement from Junts or ERC on withdrawing parliamentary support, and developments in the judicial cases involving Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez and Santos Cerdán. Beyond Spain, developments in France's government under Lecornu and any reshuffle decision by Macron are relevant because this contract resolves on which leader in the named group exits first, not on Sánchez's position in isolation.

Trade this contract

Venues (1)

Open on PolymarketYes 0.18
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More about this event

Venues (1)

Probability

  • Will Pedro Sánchez be the next leader out before 2027?18%
  • Will Sébastien Lecornu be the next leader out before 2027?5%
  • Will Emmanuel Macron be the next leader out before 2027?2%
  • Will Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva be the next leader out before 2027?2%
  • Will Miguel Díaz-Canel be the next leader out before 2027?1%
  • Will Donald Trump be the next leader out before 2027?1%
  • Will Recep Tayyip Erdoğan be the next leader out before 2027?1%
  • Will Volodymyr Zelenskyy be the next leader out before 2027?1%
  • Will Xi Jinping be the next leader out before 2027?0%

Resolution rules

Determined by
Consensus of credible international news reporting (Reuters, AP, AFP, major Spanish outlets)
Resolution date

This market resolves using consensus reporting from Reuters, AP, AFP and major Spanish news outlets. It settles Yes only if Pedro Sánchez permanently stops being Spanish Prime Minister before 1 January 2027 and does so before any of the other named leaders — Lula, Xi Jinping, Trump, Macron, Lecornu, Erdoğan, Díaz-Canel, Zelenskyy — leave their own offices. Resignation announcements, pre-handover election losses, and temporary suspensions such as impeachment do not count as leaving office. If no leader in the group leaves office by 31 December 2026, the market resolves as 'None before 2027'.

Calculation methodology →

Local context

English-language financial and political coverage has tracked Spain's corruption scandals and coalition instability closely because Spain is the eurozone's fourth-largest economy and a significant voice in EU budget and Ukraine-funding negotiations. A sudden change of government in Madrid would be reported quickly by Reuters, AP and AFP and could affect European equity markets and the euro, channels that reach readers in the US, UK and elsewhere indirectly through currency and market movements rather than through any direct domestic stake.

Common questions

What exactly settles this question, and when?
It resolves based on consensus reporting from Reuters, AP, AFP and major Spanish outlets on whether Pedro Sánchez has permanently left the office of Spanish Prime Minister before 1 January 2027, and whether he is the first among the named group of leaders to do so. The resolution date is 1 January 2027.
What does the current price actually mean?
The price is the market's current estimate of the probability that Sánchez leaves office first, expressed as a number between 0 and 1. It is not a prediction from any single analyst; it reflects what buyers and sellers are currently willing to pay based on available information.
Does a resignation announcement count as leaving office?
No. The rules specify that a mere resignation announcement, an election loss before the actual handover, or a temporary suspension such as impeachment does not count. Only a permanent cessation of holding the office counts toward resolution.
What happens if none of the listed leaders leave office by the deadline?
If none of the group — Sánchez, Lula, Xi, Trump, Macron, Lecornu, Erdoğan, Díaz-Canel or Zelenskyy — leaves office by 31 December 2026, the market resolves as 'None before 2027', meaning this specific contract settles No.
Why does Sánchez's coalition keep surviving despite its fragility?
Smaller coalition partners such as Junts, ERC and PNV have generally found it more useful to extract policy concessions through repeated budget and legislative brinkmanship than to trigger a snap election, since an early vote carries its own risks for their own parliamentary representation.
How does the comparison with other leaders affect the outcome?
Because the contract pays out only if Sánchez is the first of the named leaders to leave office, instability elsewhere in the group, particularly around France's prime ministership under Lecornu, directly competes with and can lower the practical chance of this specific outcome even if Sánchez's own position weakens.

Related events

18%/ 82%
Yes / No