Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ended a five-day suspense on Monday by announcing that he had decided to remain at the head of the government, despite the “campaign of discredit” of which he accuses the right-wing opposition and of which the latest illustration, according to him, is the opening of a legal investigation against his wife. “I have decided to continue” at the head of the government, said in a serious tone the 52-year-old socialist leader, in power since 2018, in a solemn nine-minute speech delivered on the steps of the Moncloa Palace, headquarters official of the presidency of the Spanish government.
Right-wing leader accuses Sánchez of “making fun of the Spaniards”
The leader of the right-wing opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on Monday accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has decided to stay in power, of having “made fun of the Spaniards”. Spain “does not have a president of government worthy of its citizens”, he declared to the press, affirming that the socialist leader “represents the Spain of the past” and could only “extend the agony or decadence” of his government. “Today he lost a fantastic opportunity to leave,” he said in a vitriolic speech.
Preventing “disinformation from ruling the political debate”
Pedro Sánchez had remained silent since the announcement on Wednesday by a Madrid court of the opening of a preliminary investigation for “influence peddling” and “corruption” against his wife, Begoña Gómez. Stunning the country, he wrote a four-page letter to the Spanish in which he explained that he was considering resigning to protect his family. Denying on Monday having acted in this way out of “political calculation”, he called on the country to undertake “collective reflection” on the polarization of political life, in order to prevent “disinformation from directing the political debate”.
“Either we say ‘enough’ or the degradation of public life will condition our future and doom us as a country,” he added. Absolutely unprecedented, the Spanish president had suspended all his public activities since Wednesday, when he was notably due to launch on Thursday evening the campaign for the regional elections on May 12 in Catalonia, a vote of national scope where his Socialist Party hopes to chase away the separatists. power. Chanting “Pedro, stay!”, thousands of supporters gathered on Saturday in front of the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid to ask him not to leave his post.
The prosecution requests the closure of the investigation
The investigation against Pedro Sánchez’s wife, placed under the seal of investigative secrecy, was opened following a complaint from the association “Manos limpias” (Clean Hands), a collective close to the ‘far right. She wears in particular, according to the online media The Confidentialon the links established by Begoña Gómez with the Globalia group, sponsor of the foundation in which she worked, at the time when Air Europa, an airline belonging to Globalia, was negotiating with the Sánchez government to obtain public aid.
This company actually received, in November 2020, 475 million euros, from a 10 billion fund intended to support strategic companies in difficulty due to the pandemic. But dozens of others then benefited from aid, including several of its competitors (Iberia, Vueling, Volotea, etc.).
The prosecution requested on Thursday that this investigation be closed, while Manos Limpias admitted that his complaint was based solely on press articles, but the judge in charge of the case has not yet revealed his intentions.