Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared Monday that he would not resign, nearly a week after publicly raising the possibility in response to corruption allegations against his wife that he and other officials denounced as a smear campaign.
The decision by Sánchez, who has repeatedly surprised his followers and frustrated his conservative critics with his knack for political survival, is momentous for him, his country and all of Europe.
Sánchez inspired right-wing anxiety, bewilderment and hope last week when he responded to the opening of a judicial investigation into his wife by canceling his public schedule and issuing an emotional public letter. He wrote that the harassment against his family had become intolerable and that he was considering leaving.
But on Monday he came back from the cliff. The Spanish prosecutor’s office had already requested that the complaint against his wife be dismissed due to lack of evidence.
“I have decided to continue with more strength,” Sánchez said in the highly anticipated speech on the steps of the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s residence. He added that his government would “show the world how we can defend ourselves against defamation.”
The trigger for the sudden crisis was a Spanish judge’s decision to consider a complaint from Clean Hands, a group known for bringing court cases against politicians and other prominent Spaniards.
The group filed a complaint accusing Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, of influence peddling and corruption, citing as potential evidence online news reports that it has acknowledged could contain false information. The judge ordered a preliminary investigation based on those online media reports.
For now, Sánchez will remain one of the most trusted progressive voices on the European stage in an era of growing populism and nationalism.
Sánchez, young, tall and photogenic, unexpectedly took power in June 2018 after calling for a vote of no confidence that toppled the conservative government amid an illicit funds scandal in the conservative Popular Party.
He then formed a government with the support of the leftist Unidas Podemos and regional separatist parties, which harbor hopes of breaking away from Madrid, and immediately became a source of hope for liberals desperate for an international standard-bearer during a season of populism and party victories. the extreme right across the continent.
During his term, Spain has passed progressive legislation and its economy has improved. But in the past year he had become increasingly unpopular at home, with a reputation for setbacks and political machinations. He called early elections and prematurely ended the country’s first coalition government since the return of democracy in the 1970s.
His conservative opponents appeared to have a certain victory. But the move turned out to be a masterstroke. Despite winning fewer votes than the Popular Party, Sánchez had called the election early enough to stop the hemorrhage of supporters and prevented his center-right rivals and the far-right Vox party from gaining a large enough margin to form a government. . Instead, he cobbled together a governing coalition with almost all the remaining political forces, including smaller and in some cases opposing parties.
In recent weeks he had overcome other internal obstacles, including the passage of a hotly contested amnesty law that pleased and kept coalition partners who supported independence in the northern region of Catalonia. Sánchez, in any case, seemed to be preparing for his second term.
But then, after months of largely ignored news reports alleging that his wife and her associates benefited from her relationship with the prime minister, a self-styled anti-corruption group with a history of pursuing high-risk cases filed a complaint based on several of those critical articles to a Spanish judge.
On Wednesday, the judge agreed to investigate, Sánchez issued his emotional response and the landscape of Spanish politics began to shake.