Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez scraped through a confidence vote Tuesday with hard-fought support from smaller parties, allowing him to form a new leftist coalition government and end almost a year of political limbo for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.

Sánchez’s cliffhanger victory by just two votes in parliament — the final tally was 167-165, with 18 abstentions — was the slimmest for a prime minister candidate in decades. The left-wing United We Can party will be a junior partner in the coalition.

Sánchez needed the votes or abstention promise of an array of smaller parties to get past. His supporters in parliament erupted into a standing ovation when the result of the vote was announced in the Chamber of Deputies.