Last two Spanish prime ministers have had to manage the economic crisis that began in 2007. They have done so with different stocks of political capital in skills, relational, and reputational dimensions. We will try to apply the conceptual framework on political capital and leadership proposed by ‘t Hart, Worthy and Bennister, to the case of Spain. To that aim, we are going to compare the mandates of the two Spanish last prime ministers: Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-2011) and Rajoy (2011-2014). As the latter mandate is still open, we lack the necessary temporal distance to assess properly his tenure but we already know the trajectory, leadership dynamics, and legacy of Rodríguez Zapatero. Both have shared the institutional parameters of prime minister’s office in Spain and the crisis situation. They differ in their representation and performance, and in their management of hard and soft power resources. The focused comparison of both cases will surely throw some light on the limits of governance in Southern Europe.
