Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s prime minister, announced on Monday that he will remain in office despite threats to resign over what he described as a right-wing campaign of political harassment.
“I have decided to stay,” he said in a highly-anticipated public address that drew a line under days of political uncertainty that had gripped the country for the past five days.
The 52-year-old Socialist leader, who has been in power since 2018, wrote a letter to the public on Wednesday, stating that he was taking time off to consider his probable resignation after a Madrid court confirmed a preliminary investigation into his wife Begona Gomez for suspected influence peddling and corruption.
Sanchez denied that the move was a “political calculation,” saying he wanted to “stop and reflect” on the growing polarization in politics, which he said was increasingly being driven by “deliberate disinformation.”
“For too long we’ve let this filth corrupt our political and public life with toxic methods that were unimaginable just a few years ago… Do we really want this for Spain?” he asked.
“I have acted out of a clear conviction: either we say ‘enough is enough’ or this degradation of public life will define our future and condemn us as a country.”
He stated his choice to stay was “decisively influenced” by the tremendous show of solidarity outside his Socialist party’s headquarters in Madrid, when hundreds of impassioned fans chanted: “Pedro, stay!”
On Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office requested that the Begona Gomez inquiry be ended, but Sanchez, an expert in political survival who has made a career of taking political risks, remained silent.
He was scheduled to launch his party’s campaign for the Catalonia regional elections on May 12, in which his Socialists want to unseat pro-independence forces.
‘Harassment’ campaign
The court started an investigation into Sanchez’s wife in response to a complaint filed by the anti-corruption pressure organization Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), whose leader is affiliated with the far right.
Shortly after Sanchez’s bombshell letter went out on X, the group, which has previously filed a slew of unsuccessful cases against politicians, stated that their complaint was based on media accounts and could not guarantee their validity.
While the court did not provide information about the case, El Confidencial, an online news outlet, reported that it was due to her ties to various private enterprises that got government financing or obtained public contracts.
Sanchez has been demonized by right-wing opponents and the media because his minority government relies on the radical left, as well as Catalan and Basque separatist parties, to pass legislation.
They have been particularly outraged by his decision to grant amnesty to hundreds of Catalan separatists facing legal action for their actions in the northeastern region’s failed independence bid in 2017.
The amnesty, which was granted in exchange for the support of Catalan separatist parties, still need final parliamentary approval.
Since Wednesday, the opposition has criticized Sanchez’s decision to withdraw from public duties in an attempt to rally his followers.
“A head of government can’t make a show of himself like a teenager and have everyone running after him, begging him not to leave and not to get angry,” said right-wing opposition leader and Popular Party chairman Alberto Nunez Feijoo on Thursday.