Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said late Wednesday he was considering resigning after a judge opened an investigation into whether Sánchez’s wife had abused her position to help friends win public contracts.
The development stunned Spain and cast doubt on the political future of perhaps Europe’s most prominent progressive leader just months after he defied widespread expectations by forming a fragmented coalition and securing a second term in power.
“I need to stop and think,” Sánchez wrote in a long letter posted on his X social media account on Wednesday night. He canceled all political engagements until Monday to decide, he said, whether “he should continue to head the government or renounce this honor.”
Recently, Sánchez appeared to overcome another major obstacle by ensuring that the Catalan independent movement would support his coalition, making his second term in government look solid.
But that all changed on Wednesday morning, when a judge responded to a formal complaint filed by a far-right group, Clean Hands, and ordered an investigation into the evidence against the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, for alleged drug trafficking. influences. No further details were immediately available.
In the long letter published in X, Sánchez argued that the accusations were motivated by his political opponents, the Popular Party, or PP, and Vox.
In a post on X, the PP responded: “Your problem is not political, it is judicial and you are responsible for an episode that stains the international image of our country.”
“This is an operation of harassment and demolition by land, sea and air, to try to weaken me politically and personally by attacking my wife,” Sánchez said.
He added that he will hold a press conference on Monday to inform the country of his decision.