Embattled Sánchez resists clamour for resignation

Seven years after having taken office by ousting the conservatives of government corruption, Pedro Sánchez is fighting for his political life in the midst of investigations on the alleged transplant of his Socialist Party (PSOE).

June 12 A Prime Minister with the ash face apologized to the Spaniards After the audio gathered by the civil guard investigators was made public and seemed to show the secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, discussing the commissions paid by companies in exchange for public contracts.

Sánchez was not himself directly involved, but the socialist leader who came to the promising power to clean the policy is now confronted with calls to resign from invigorated opposition.

Cerdán, which was the number three party, resigned from the PSOE and resigned as a deputy. He must appear before the Supreme Court on June 25. He maintains that he has never committed a crime or implicit in one.

The investigation into the commissions is part of an ongoing investigation which has already involved José Luis Ábalos, former secretary of the PSOE and Minister of Transport. A third person involved is Koldo García, advisor to Ábalos. The two men presented with Cerdán in the recently exposed audio. All three say they did nothing wrong.

The investigation into Abalos, which started last year, was harmful to the government, but its release from the cabinet and the post of secretary of the PSOE in 2021 put the distance between him and Sánchez. However, Cerdán’s involvement is more problematic.

Sánchez had defended him several times in the face of the claims in the right -wing media in recent months that he has been investigated, and the Prime Minister even accused the opposition of “slandering honest people” when he asked him about the activities of Cerdán last month.

The secretary of the party, of the northern region of Navarre, was a confidant of confidence of the Prime Minister, playing a crucial role, for example, in the negotiation of the support of the Catalan nationalists to authorize the formation of a new government in 2023.

Although he recognized that he “should not have trusted” Cerdán, Sánchez insisted that he will see the legislature, which should end in 2027.

In a letter to the members of PSOE, he apologized again, while overtaking.

“There are many problems that affect the majority of the majority – health care, housing, pensions, jobs, the fight against climate change and the defense of equality – and for which it is worth fighting,” he wrote. “Challenges that are not resolved with headlines or lynchages.”

However, the opposition presented the investigation as symptomatic of a corrupt diet, pointing to other probes affecting Sánchez and his circle.

A judge investigated the Prime Minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, for possible commercial irregularities – and his musician brother, David, should be tried for an alleged influence that has stood in the management of a public post in the southwest city of Badajoz. Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, is also likely to deal with a trial to reveal the confidential details of a tax escape. The three deny the reprehensible acts.

Sánchez and his supporters threw these three cases as part of a campaign orchestrated by the conservative popular party (PP), the Vox of the far right, the right -wing media and the factions within the judiciary. A certain number of legal experts have expressed their surprise in the face of the zeal with which the investigations were carried out.

In a noisy parliamentary session this week, opposition deputies chanted “Dimisión” (resigning) to the Prime Minister, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chief of the PP, accused him of being “a wolf who directed a corrupt pack”.

Paco Camas, head of public opinion in Spain for the Ipsos survey cabinet, considers a resignation from Sánchez as “political suicide” for his party, as it would almost certainly trigger elections, allowing the PP to form a government, probably with the support of Vox.

“The global trend right now is a demobilized electorate on the left, in particular for the Socialist Party, and a huge mobilization of voters on the right, which capitalizes on dissatisfaction with the government,” said Camas.

Even the socialist president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, Emiliano García-Page, warned that “there is no worthy outcome” for the PSOE.

However, as long as Sánchez can keep its fragile majority parliamentary of left and nationalist parties, it is not that the opposition can make it fall.

To this end, the Prime Minister has frantically tried to reassure these allies, many of which expressed indignation in the face of the Cerdán -ábalos scandal. Camas believes that persuading them to support a 2026 budget could be a way for Sánchez to buy time.

Nevertheless, such plans could be left in tatters were more explosive revelations to emerge, like many in the Socialist Party fear.

These concerns will play Sánchez’s mind as he heads for the top of NATO in The Hague.

Normally, a guaranteed presence on the international scene, he will arrive with serious doubts about his future and under increasing pressure to increase the defense expenses of Spain.

Although her government has promised to increase military spending to 2% of economic production this year, it resisted calls from the United States and NATO leaders to raise it more. Sánchez has now refused to accept a 5% target of GDP for military spending, adage It “would not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive”.