The conditions for a coronavirus spike in Spain were clear. Yet no one saw it coming | Giles Tremlett

When the pandemic first struck, Spaniards forgave the government's mistakes. This time it could be different

Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, provided a reassuring contrast to the buffoonery of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. When he forced the country into a harsh mid-March lockdown, he freely admitted mistakes had been made.

Spaniards were prepared to pardon. But, just as Americans cannot forgive Trump for leading the United States into a double-bump pandemic, so a sense of anger is building as Spain's triumphant defeat" of coronavirus threatens to become merely a brief holiday.