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Habitual on all fronts, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who is considering resigning, maintained on Friday his second day of self-imposed silence, a totally unprecedented decision that is disconcerting in Spain.
Sánchez announced on Wednesday in a letter, absolutely by surprise, that canceled all his public commitments until Mondaywhen he will reveal whether he resigns, fed up with the opposition’s attacks on his wife, Begoña Gómez, for her alleged professional relationship with companies that received public aid.
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A gesture of which there are no precedents, and which has given way to absolute silence from the socialist leader.
If there is a region in Spain that has been a stronghold of Sánchez, both in the internal socialist battles and in the general elections, it is Catalonia. Under his command, the socialists They have recovered the mayor’s office of Barcelona after a 12-year hiatusand they seem ready to win the government of the region in the May 12 elections.
For this reason, Sánchez has spent a lot of time in Catalonia, and yet, the start of the regional electoral campaign, on Thursday, it became strange without him and his absence ended up being a dominant theme of the first rallies.
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“From your individual resistance we call to raise a collective resistance and we tell you, Pedro, that we are with you!” launched the socialist candidate to lead Catalonia, Salvador Illa, joining the expressions of support with which the left tries to Sánchez stays.
Demonstrations of support by socialist militants are expected until Monday.
“In love”
The other Catalan parties, on the other hand, downplayed the reasons given by Sánchez for walking away, among which he cited being “deeply” in love with his wife. ““I am also in love with my wife and I am not abandoning her,” Pere Aragonés, current Catalan president and candidate of the Republican Left of Catalonia, launched at his rally.
The reactions to Sánchez’s move have been divided into two: some, the socialists, who have supported a leader whom They consider them unfairly treated, and the others, the opposition, who doubt the sincerity of a gesture that they believe responds to some strategy.
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The former president of the socialist Government, José Luis Zapatero, showed this Friday his understanding in the face of “such blatant criticism towards his wife and family”, in statements to the press.
On the other hand, the conservative Popular Party (PP), the first in the opposition, accused Sánchez of hiding something and of keeping the country in suspense without justification.
“We are very clear that This is part of tacticism, we already know it by now, we all know Pedro Sánchez“, and everything is always a soap opera, and in this case with a chapter that he knows, and here he has us all waiting, a country on pause,” Cuca Gamarra, general secretary of the PP, told the press this Friday.
Tired of the political climate
Sánchez, 52, made his announcement a few hours after a judge agreed to investigate Begoña Gómez for suspicions of influence peddling and corruption, following a complaint from an organization close to the extreme right.
The prosecution requested that the complaint be filed.
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There are no clues as to what Sánchez will decide, but the possibility is being considered that he will call a motion of confidence so that Congress can reiterate its support, or that he will end up resigning.
If this were the case, the government would be in office and Spain could head towards new general elections in which nothing would prevent Sánchez from running, but which could not be held until the summer, a year after the previous ones, in which that the socialists came second behind the PP, but were able to govern thanks to parliamentary alliances.
Many Spaniards seem fed up with the political climate, like Mercedes Cano, a 69-year-old retired French teacher, who explained to AFP in Madrid that “people are tired.”
“I think people are tired and a little disappointed with the political environment in general. It is not just that one is on the left or on the right, I believe that the wear and tear and disillusionment is general,” he stated.
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