A blow for Rajoy

Sending in the troops to prevent the referendum in Catalonia taking place, invoking Article 155 to take over control and forcing a snap election has backfired. The hope was that the secessionist movement would be squashed but that hasn't happened.

The situation remains unclear because the separatist parties still have to come to agreement and several of their leaders are either in jail or in exile.  However, with 70 potential seats, they have the majority over the unionist and other parties.