Text/Hu Yukun
Editor/Qi Fei
On April 29, local time, Pedro Sánchez, the 52-year-old prime minister of Spain and general secretary of the center-left ruling Socialist Workers Party (hereinafter referred to as the "Socialist Workers"), delivered a national address, announcing that he would remain prime minister, ending the five-day "resignation of the prime minister".
Five days ago, Sanchez suddenly published an open letter on social networks, announcing the suspension of official activities and saying that he would consider whether to resign. The move has filled Spanish politics with a level of volatility and uncertainty rarely seen in recent years.
On April 24, Sánchez's open letter was published on social networks.
It was the first prime minister in Spain's history to do so, and the immediate cause appeared to be that his wife was caught up in corruption allegations. However, whether it is his past style or the final direction of events, it is implied that Sanchez has more consideration and planning. The famously tough and shrewd European leader has had the upper hand in this round of the game, but will he be able to survive the deteriorating political landscape in Spain?
"Protecting his wife" or retreating?
The sudden "resignation" of the prime minister originated from a signed open letter published on social media "X" by Sanchez on April 24 - a scanned page in the form of four images, accompanied by a short tweet "Letter to all citizens". In the letter, he denied allegations of corruption ("power rent-seeking") against his wife, Begoña Gómez, and announced that he would suspend his duties and cancel his official activities until April 29 to announce whether he would finally resign.
"It's an unprecedented attack, it's serious, it's brutal, so I need to stop and think. In the open letter, Sanchez wrote, "I am not ashamed to say that I am a man who loves his wife deeply. She faced the sludge they threw at her day after day, but there was nothing she could do. ”
As soon as the open letter was issued, it caused an uproar in Spanish politics. In his letter, Sánchez complained of "pouring dirty water" was a reference to the accusations made by the Spanish trade union Manos Limpias that his wife had abused her power for personal gain and had improper associations with private companies that led to the latter obtaining government funding or public utility tender contracts.
Local media outlets such as El Confidencial revealed more details of the allegations on the same day that Sánchez published an open letter: Gomez, then executive director of the Africa Center at IE University Business School in Madrid, received "sponsorship" from Air Europa and its holding company, Grobalia. In response, IE University issued a statement denying any financial support from Grobalia or Air Europa, to which Grobalia did not respond.
IE University Business School, embroiled in a corruption scandal
In July 2020, the Sánchez government announced the creation of a €10 billion pandemic aid package to help the country's "strategic companies" most affected by the pandemic. Four months later, Air Europa became the first company to be bailed out, taking the lead in approving €475 million, alleviating the immediate need of the crisis. At that time, Gomez happened to be working at the Africa Center of IE University, and the timelines overlapped so much that it inevitably gave the outside world room for imagination.
But in the eyes of Spanish public opinion and analysts, the incident was not a simple matter of justice. Clean Hands' founder, Miguel Bernad, is a veteran far-right lawyer, and the group is seen by many media outlets as politically dominated by far-right ideas. Although Bernard claims to be a "clean hand" to defend the rule of law, fight corruption and separatism, and not be attached to any political party or ideology, in reality the group's judicial proceedings are almost always directed against the center-left, as well as separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country.
One of Clean Hands' most famous lawsuits was against Baltasar Garzón, a former judge at the Spanish Criminal Court. The latter's controversial investigation into "crimes against humanity" committed by Franco's far-right dictatorship in 2008 led to accusations by Clean Hands of abusing judicial authority and violating the 1977 national amnesty. In the end, Garzon was convicted of several crimes, suspended as a judge and stripped of his lawyer for 11 years.
When the local court in Madrid announced on April 24 that it had opened an investigation into Gomez, the Spanish prosecutor's office immediately issued a-for-tat statement calling for the investigation to be stopped, on the grounds that the proof provided by the "clean hands" was not sufficient, but only clips of some media reports, some of which had been proven to be misinformation. The statement stressed that if the allegations are false, then the person who posted the message will be held responsible.
For this reason, Sanchez bluntly stated in his open letter that the investigation against Gomez is a political attack, which means that the opposition right-wing forces - the People's Party (center-right) and the Voice Party (far-right) - have reached a climax in the year-long "harassment" of him, and his wife is nothing more than an innocent "victim". "Given that right-wing and far-right groups have messed up our politics, is it worth it to stay in power?" Sanchez's emotional pressure in the letter, and even the mentality of "protecting his wife" at the expense of his career, won the sympathy of many people.
On April 27, Spanish support for Sánchez took to the streets, reportedly reaching 12,000 people.
However, the political opposition represented by the right-wing opposition parties and many people in the civil society did not think that Sanchez's move was purely an emotional impulse to protect his relatives.
In the eyes of its biggest rival, the People's Party, Sánchez is "retreating as advancing" and is trying to put himself on the moral high ground with an open letter to force the party to stop in disgrace. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the president of the PP, quickly countered by accusing Sánchez of disregarding the country's political stability for the sake of one-party interests: "No one will hijack an entire country to serve the PSOE's strategy...... No other prime minister (prime minister) in Europe has ever done such a thing. ”
Aside from the verbal battles between political parties, analysts in Spain are also not convinced that Sanchez will easily succumb to emotional pressure. Toni Roldán, a former member of the Spanish Civic Party and director of the Center for Political Economy Studies at the Spanish School of Business Administration (ESADE), said that Sánchez is known for being tough and resourceful among European leaders, and combined with his trajectory in Western politics, it is hard to believe that he took such actions just because of an "emotional breakdown".
The Financial Times pointed out that in addition to putting his right-wing opponents in one army, another intention of Sanchez's move is to use the "cool-down period" of these days to highlight to the public "the risk of losing him". Some people found that Sanchez's public letter was written on a blank sheet of paper, and there was no official letterhead from the Spanish Prime Minister's Office, and its wording did not seem to have been checked and polished by the staff around him. In other words, Sanchez's announcement of his resignation (or at least in an open letter) was most likely without prior communication with his aides, cabinet team, or party members.
This sudden attack, which surprised everyone, did have the effect he expected. Faced with sudden tensions and imminent political uncertainty, cabinet ministers have spoken out through social networks, urging Sanchez not to resign. By the end of last week, thousands of Sánchez and PSOE supporters had taken buses from all over the country to Madrid, where they gathered in front of the PSOE headquarters and shouted slogans such as "Pedro, don't give up" and "You are not alone" to express their support for his premiership.
On April 27, PSOE supporters rallied outside the PSOE headquarters in Madrid to support Sánchez.
The effect also spreads beyond its borders. Brazilian President Lula, who is close friends with Sanchez, spoke with him and posted in "X": "His [Sanchez's] power and role are important for his country, for Europe and for the whole world." ”
Alexis Sanchez (first from left) with President Lula da Silva of Brazil (third from left), President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (first from right), and President of the European Council Charles Michel.
Judging from the reactions of all parties and the direction of events, it has become clear that the motive behind the resignation of the prime minister is "either childish narcissism or extreme Machiavellianism." Mariam Martínez-Baskunian, a political scientist at the Autonomous University of Madrid, has no mins in words.
But no matter which theory is true, Sanchez's open letter has dropped a shock bomb on Spanish politics and society. And whether his decision to hold on was "impressed by public support," as he put it, or was it a planned step?
The political ecology that continues to be "poisoned".
Whether it is a momentary threat of anger or a well-calculated strategy, Sanchez announced on the morning of April 29 that he would remain prime minister in an emotional national speech, ending the drama of the "five-day thinking period", once again confirming his tough and shrewd side, and further building the character of "loving wife".
On April 29, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made a speech announcing that he would remain prime minister.
If this is another round of his game against the right-wing opposition, Sanchez clearly has the upper hand, and this is a microcosm of his political career.
Known as "Mr. Handsome", Sanchez came from a wealthy family, with his father being the owner of an industrial packaging company and his mother being a civil servant and lawyer. While studying economics and business at university, Sánchez joined the PSOE in 1993, encouraged by the victory of Felipe González, then general secretary of the Labour Socialist Party, for re-election as prime minister.
In 1998, Sánchez entered politics, working for the PSOE delegation to the European Parliament in Brussels, as an assistant to Barbara Dilkop, a senior member of the party's European Parliament, while pursuing postgraduate degrees at various schools including the Universiteit de Bruxelles. After returning home, Sánchez campaigned for the election in 2003 and was co-opted the following year as a member of the Madrid City Council, where he met and married his wife, Gómez.
In 2009, with the retirement of then-Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Solves, the 37-year-old was given another chance to be co-opted to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time, but not long after the PSOE suffered a crushing defeat in the 2011 general election, leaving Sanchez re-elected by one spot in the 11th place in the party's proportional representation list in Madrid's constituency. After a brief "first experience in parliament", Sanchez devoted himself to a doctorate.
Good fortune favored Sanchez for the third time. In 2013, Cristina Navona, a veteran female politician of the Labour Socialist Party, resigned as a member of the House of Representatives, and Sanchez returned to parliament as a replacement. A year later, he seized the opportunity to take center stage in the political arena: in the 2014 European Parliament elections, the Socialist Workers' dismal performance and the resignation of then-General Secretary Alfredo Pérez Ruvalcava took the blame, and Sanchez quickly launched a campaign to run for the post of General Secretary, and finally became the leader of the Socialist Labor Party and the Parliamentary Opposition, beating out two rivals with 49% of the vote.
During his tenure as leader of the PSOE, he presented himself as a strong leader, aggressively proposing reforms that re-appealed to the PSOE's rank-and-file electorate, who had become disillusioned with the Zapatero era. At the same time, however, the threat of votes from the left-wing Podemos party to the PSOE, and Sanchez's resolute refusal to cooperate with the PPP and his unwillingness to support the latter's leader Mariano Rajoy as prime minister, despite the "suspended parliament" pattern of the two consecutive general elections in 2015 and 2016, led to the delay in forming a new government.
Undeterred by the major setbacks, Sánchez began to show his ability to retreat as advance: he further pursued the strategy of the "grassroots line", drove around the country to build momentum, and communicated with Labour Socialist Party members everywhere, fully criticizing the party's top brass for cooperating with his opponent Rajoy as prime minister, and winning widespread support from grassroots party members. Soon after, he was re-elected leader of the Labour Socialist Party in 2017 with a majority of the vote.
In the summer of 2018, Sanchez reached the pinnacle of politics. Taking advantage of the corruption scandal of the ruling People's Party, he led the Socialist Labour Party in a vote of no confidence in the government. The vote passed without incident, forcing Rajoy to resign as prime minister and recommending Sanchez, the leader of the largest opposition party, to succeed him. On June 2 of that year, at the age of 46, Sanchez was appointed the new prime minister by King Felipe VI, becoming the most powerful man in the country, and he was not even a member of the House of Representatives.
Rajoy (right) shakes hands with his successor, Sanchez, after the 2018 no-confidence vote.
After becoming prime minister, he continued to combine "strong and fearless" with "resourcefulness": keeping the general government budget passed by the Rajoy government, and fulfilling the "exchange promise" to the center-right Basque Nationalist Party before the no-confidence vote; Opposition from supporters and some right-wing forces led to the removal of Franco's remains from the "Valley of the Martyrs" in 2019.
In dealing with regional separatism, especially the separatist forces in Catalonia, Sánchez has brought his "political calculations" into full play. In his second term as leader of the largest opposition party and in the early days of his administration, he expressed the same position as the Rajoy government, supporting the 2017 sentencing of the Catalan separatist leader without a pardon. But in the 2023 general election, in order to gain the support of the members of the Catalan regional political parties to form a government, Sanchez changed his words and supported the amnesty of the "Canadian independence" leader, but retained the bottom line of "never holding a referendum on the independence of the Catalan region".
There are many more similar examples. For example, in response to the crisis of the new crown epidemic, Sanchez gave huge blood transfusion support to "strategic enterprises" on the one hand, and declared a national emergency and imposed a nationwide lockdown on the other, which caused an uproar and was rejected by parliament on the grounds of "unconstitutionality".
In foreign policy, he has been particularly active in emphasizing Spain's position and role in the EU, high-profile support for the EU's strengthening of integration and global influence, openly insinuating that Eurosceptics are "internal enemies", and raising suspicions about his own ambitions in European affairs
Air Europa, which received a huge rescue from the Sanchez government.
In fact, the time of this "resignation turmoil" is approaching the European Parliament election in June this year, and Sanchez has added points to himself and the Socialist Workers Party through games, which is very likely to strengthen the bargaining chips of the entire Socialist Party camp during the European Parliament election, and even does not rule out the possibility that he himself will become a senior EU official in the future.
It is against the backdrop of global political polarization and intensifying left-right antagonism that Sanchez has become "more left" since 2018 and has achieved the political goal of making a comeback. In last year's Spanish election, when the Labour Socialist government was in crisis and was not favored, Sanchez relied on similar tactics to elevate the election to the level of the "progressive left" and the "conservative reactionary right", successfully escaping the catastrophe and avoiding collapse. But in turn, a series of more assertive and capricious words and deeds and policies in recent years have further intensified the hostility of right-wing opponents, and gradually formed the "poisoned political environment" that he himself criticized in his open letter.
Comparison of the results of the 2023 Spanish election with the 2019 election. Source: BBC
According to Spanish media, as early as 2014, senior officials of the ruling center-right government considered tracking down Gomez and finding clues about his illegality in order to "kill Sanchez politically". In recent years, the right-wing opposition has escalated to the level of personal attacks on Sanchez, and even the People's Party, the largest party, has not hesitated to use extreme words such as "usurper, terrorist sympathizer, traitor", not to mention those "legal measures" that are not aimed at judicial justice, but only to slander and harm Sanchez.
"It's not worth it if we accept the kind of politics that attacks innocent people...... It is not at all glorious to justify the suffering of your loved ones. In his national address announcing his stay in office, Sanchez repeatedly stressed that political antagonism should not be "poisoned" without a bottom line.
However, where does this deteriorating political atmosphere come from? Sanchez can overcome challenges and climb high positions again and again with his toughness and shrewdness, but as this political wind intensifies, what awaits Sanchez to reach a higher level, or is he careless and broken? Time will eventually tell the answer. (The author is an international political columnist and a member of the Translators Association of China)