Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said yesterday that he decided to stay in his post. His statement came just days after he suddenly announced the possibility of resigning after a preliminary investigation into corruption and influence peddling began against his wife, Begonya Gomez.
According to Reuters, Sanchez, 52, surprised opponents and allies alike when he said he was temporarily stepping down from his duties to consider whether it was worth remaining at the head of the government. According to the agency, his words about a possible resignation have caused chaos in Spanish politics, where at the time the fragmented parliament was able to form a government with great difficulty. If new parliamentary elections had been held, they would have been the fourth in the last five years.
The charges against Begoña Gómez were brought by a group called Clean Hands, which took advantage of a feature of Spanish law called the popular prosecution, which allows individuals or organizations to bring certain criminal cases even when they do not were directly affected by the accused, AP points out. The agency added that the organization was founded by lawyer and former politician Miguel Benad, who has ties to the Spanish far-right, although he himself insists he is politically independent. His organization often mounts “people's prosecutions” related to right-wing causes and directed against left-wing politicians, but most of them only attract attention without ultimately winning in court.
In the “reflection days” to Prime Minister Sanchez whether he will remain in office, “Clean hands” issued a statement saying the allegations against Gomez were based entirely on media reports, the Washington Post reported. “If they are not true, it will be up to those who published them to admit their falsity, but if they are true, then we believe the court case should move forward,”, the organization announced.
According to Sanchez, the court investigation against his wife was orchestrated by his opponents. The prime minister insists that Gomez is innocent and has accused opposition leaders Alberto Nunes Feijoo of the Popular Party and Santiago Abascal of the far-right "Vox" of collaborating with those spreading allegations against his wife, the American TV channel "ABC News" reports. .
Sanchez announced his decision to stay on from the Moncloa Palace, the residence of the Spanish prime minister, dispelling uncertainty surrounding a possible resignation. He added that a “smear campaign“ is being waged against him and his family, which will not stop. The statement ends days of waiting in Spain and fears of political uncertainty if the prime minister resigns, Spanish news agency EFE reported. “I have decided to remain, if possible, even stronger as prime minister. Things will not be the same as before, they will be different,”, she quotes Sanchez.
The British “Guardian” highlights how the Spanish Prime Minister has called for an end to political and media attacks and the culture of defamatory and defamatory rumors and lies that have permeated Spanish public life over the past few years. “They are part of a global reactionary movement that wants to impose its retrograde agenda through slander and lies, through hate and through inciting fears and threats that have nothing to do with science or reason,” he said, as quoted by the British newspaper .
And according to “Politico” the threat of resignation has led to an outpouring of support for Sanchez from the top echelons of his Spanish Socialist Workers Party and thousands of supporters who took to the streets over the weekend. The prime minister said the public show of support ultimately convinced him to stay in office.
Newspaper “Pais” takes the situation as very serious: “Pedro Sánchez points the finger directly at the threat from the right that is spreading across key Western democracies. One cannot help but think of Portugal and the resignation of Prime Minister Antonio Costa over allegations of influence peddling, which were soon after dismissed by the courts, but ended a progressive government that had an absolute majority.”
But while some media believe that the political crisis in Spain has passed, others consider Sanchez's decision a bad political move.
“The drama with Sanchez in Spain: After toying with the resignation, the prime minister drew criticism”, notes the Qatari television channel “Al Jazeera”. “Millions of people in Spain were glued to their televisions as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made a live address to the nation only to say he would remain in charge of the government. According to many, it was just a tactical game”, the media points out.
The BBC quotes the main opposition figures. The leader of the conservative People's Party, Alberto Nunes Feijoo, said that Spain does not have a "prime minister worthy of his post" and that Sanchez had "made fools of a nation of 48 million people with his feigned resignation". And Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right “Vox” said that "Sánchez's theater has turned Spain into an international laughing stock with unpredictable consequences.
V. “Mundo” accused Sánchez of poor tactics and of showing symptoms of political weakness. “With his move, which has caused high tensions, the Prime Minister has thrown Spanish society into turmoil and exacerbated the division between citizens that is characteristic of his style of government. His turning away from the initial positions is a symptom of obvious political weakness”. According to the publication, on the eve of the European elections, Sanchez is trying to cover up his previous bad results.
“Periodico de Catalunya” openly criticized the behavior of Sánchez: “The written statement of the head of the government that he is giving himself a five-day period to consider his possible resignation can only be described as irresponsible. And the irresponsibility of one person must not be allowed to paralyze the entire political system. Delayed resignations are the worst style of politics."
„He gave himself a free campaign rally for five full days. Those who were with him will now be with him until death," said Montserrat Nebrera, a political analyst and professor of constitutional law at the International University of Catalonia, as quoted by "Voice of America". “This appears to be a bet to further polarize the electorate between those who are with him and those who are against him,”, she said. According to her, Sánchez's decision should affect the result for Spain in the European elections, and she recalled that polls currently do not bode well for the prime minister and his socialists.
The Polish “Jeczpospolita” one wonders whether Sánchez has in fact set his sights on the presidency of the European Council with his move. “It is entirely possible that the head of government has decided that now is the perfect time to develop his international career. It's true that in a country that spends just 1.3 percent of GDP on defense, the chances of him replacing Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general are slim. Within the EU, however, things look quite different. If sociological surveys are to be believed, the group of socialists will be in second place in terms of number of MEPs in the European Parliament after the moderate right. And it will be able to fight for its representative to hold the second most important post in the EU: that of the President of the European Council,”, writes an article in the Polish newspaper.
Commenting to the German newspaper “Tageszeitung”, Spanish correspondent Rainer Wandler sees the case that nearly led to Sánchez's resignation as a typical tactic of the right: “Whether it is against pro-independence politicians in Catalonia or the Basque Country , leftist alternative politicians or, as now against Sanchez, the right has experience in this type of smear campaign. The media, financed by regional governments through institutional advertising, fabricate news, ultra-right organizations file lawsuits, judges loyal to the People's Party and “Vox” begin legal proceedings. Even if almost all of them are eventually rejected, some dirt always sticks. What is new is the fact that now even the family is the object of the dirt - without any evidence to support the accusations. “What is happening right now in Spain is a war in the courts and an attempted coup supported by magistrates”, the journalist is convinced.
The Cypriot “Philelelefteros” points out that this is not the first case in world practice when such an accusation is made against the wife of a politician through no fault of her own. There have been many cases of sexist attacks on politicians' wives in the past, resulting in an entire country being in the eye of the storm. “This is especially easy when the climate is as polarized as it is in Spain”, adds the newspaper.
A sort of summary of the topic quoted by the “Financial Times” Spanish lawyer Miriam González Durantes, who points out that in Spain there is no effective system to deal with the conflicts of interest of politicians' families and spouses, and thus it is inevitable that the topic plays out in the political arena. “Spain urgently needs a new approach to ethics in public life and a ministerial code of ethics”, she said.