On Monday, Pedro Sánchez, the great and unpredictable survivor of Spanish politics and a leader who has bested so many rivals, critics and rivals, will reveal whether he intends to stay on as prime minister.
The announcement came five days after the Socialist prime minister shocked Spain. Publish four pages of thoughts He said on social media that an ongoing “campaign of harassment and bullying” against him and his wife by his political and media opponents had led him to cancel public duties for the remainder of the week while he reflected on his future.
A few hours ago, a Madrid court said it had opened a preliminary investigation into Sanchez’s wife, Begonia Gomez, “on suspicion of influence peddling and corruption.” The investigation follows a complaint from pressure group Manos Limpias, which describes itself as a union with links to the far right and has long used the courts to pursue those it considers a threat to Spanish democracy. .
“Now that we have come this far, the question I legitimately ask myself is: is it all worth it? I really don’t know,” the prime minister wrote in the letter. “I need to stop and think.”
Sanchez has maintained his wife’s innocence and has publicly accused the conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox party of colluding with Manos Limpias and hostile media to try to bring about his “personal and political collapse” by attacking his wife. ”. wife.
It is understood Sanchez wrote the letter himself, without consulting his advisers. upgrade.
“We often forget that there are people behind politicians,” he wrote. “I’m not embarrassed to say that I am a man who loves his wife deeply and has to endure the helplessness of having mud thrown at her every day.”
Mud might be a polite term. Right-wing and far-right figures have sought to spread rumors about Gomez, including that she is a transgender woman, that she is involved in drug trafficking in Morocco and that her family runs a prostitution ring.
On Friday, two Spanish newspapers— vanguard and al diary – Released audio and transcripts of a 2014 meeting between senior PP ministers and José Manuel Villarejo. In the recording, the two discuss plans to spy on Gomez’s father in order to “politically kill” Sanchez. During the conversation, Villarejo also mentioned that he was “directing” the activities of Manos Limpias.
Sánchez himself is used to brutal attacks on Spanish politics, a ruthless arena whose language and personal barbs are well beyond the pale in the lower house. He also knew how to give as much as he could.
But his reliance on Basque and Catalan nationalist congressional support — not to mention the controversial and divisive Catalan amnesty deal that returned him to office after last year’s inconclusive election — — making him an easy and irresistible target for his opponents.
Former Popular Party leader Pablo Casado made a series of indecent descriptions of Sanchez, calling him a “traitor,” a “felon,” a “compulsive liar,” a “squatter” and a “disaster.” ”.
Others are equally forthright. A judge called Sanchez a “psychopath with no moral boundaries,” while Vox leader Santiago Abascal muttered darkly about the day Spaniards wanted to see the prime minister “hanged.”
The most outspoken among them is Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the populist Popular Party in the Madrid region and a bitter enemy of the prime minister, accusing him of implementing a “totalitarian” plan and introducing a “dictatorship through the back door” ”. ”.
During the investiture debate in November, Ayuso expressed displeasure at Sanchez’s jibes about her family – namely her brother’s alleged business dealings during the coronavirus pandemic – and was caught on camera calling the prime minister “Hijo de puta,” which is probably a polite way of translating to son of a bitch.
A few months after becoming prime minister in 2018, Sanchez joked about how the Popular Party viewed him. “I know you think I am a dangerous extreme leftist who is trying to divide Spain,” he said. “I know everything I do, and everything my administration does, is illegal, unethical and even fattening.”
Almost six years on, the mood has grown uglier and the laughter has become less frequent. Catalonia’s amnesty deal angers right-wing and far-right elements, with riot police clashing with fascists and neo-fascists outside the Madrid headquarters of the socialists.
Newsletter Promotion Post
Sanchez’s effigy was also beaten by protesters during New Year’s Eve protests in the capital.
Although Manos Limpias admitted on Thursday that the complaint against Gomez may have been based on incorrect media reporting, the ultraconservative, ultra-Catholic Hazte Oír (Make Yourself Heard) group filed a complaint against her a day later New criminal charges accuse her of alleged influence peddling.
The prime minister’s supporters insist that Sánchez’s letter proves he is not the Machiavellian political machine his critics believe. Instead, he’s just a devoted husband at the end of his rope. The proposals failed to impress the Popular Party, which accused Sanchez of being dramatic and trying to play the victim.
“Spain’s prime minister cannot lose his temper just because he’s a teenager and have people lining up to tell him not to be sad and to move on,” party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said on Thursday. “Being prime minister is better than being a prime minister. This is more serious.”
Despite his reputation as a gambler and a very shrewd political operator, and despite the twists he endured at the Palace of Moncloa, Sánchez claims that he is not the power-mad leader his enemies would have him believe.
“Despite all the caricatures the right and far right have tried to level at me, I have never been attached to power,” he wrote at the end of Wednesday’s letter. “What I’m attached to is responsibility, political commitment and public service.”
Thousands of people gathered outside the Madrid offices of the Socialist Party on Saturday to express their support for Sanchez. Some held party flags, others held placards reading “Stay!” and “Yes, Sanchez, continue!”. Internally, the party’s Federal Council came together to call on the prime minister to remain in office.
If Monday’s decision remains a mystery – will Sanchez go? Will he accept a vote of confidence? Will Spain go to the polls in July for its sixth general election in nine years? – The only thing that’s certain is the unpredictability that exists at Sanchester.
Sanchez was ousted by his own party in 2016 for refusing to assist another Popular Party government mired in corruption. He regained the leadership seven months later and the following year became the first Spanish to successfully overthrow a government using a no-confidence motion. Party leader.
Sanchez says his 2019 memoir was not without merit Resistor Handbook (Resistance Handbook).
The question now is whether resistance is futile — or still worthwhile — in a divided Spain and an increasingly hostile political climate.
