Spanish Prime Minister announces he may leave office – 04/24/2024 – Normalitas

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took the country and his party by surprise when he announced, this Wednesday afternoon (24), the temporary suspension of his public agenda to “reflect and decide” whether or not he will remain in office.

The decision comes hours after the Spanish newspaper “El Confidencial” published a note about an investigation opened in Madrid against the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, for alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption related to companies that would benefit from aid and contracts with the government.

The accusation is based on a complaint made by the Manos Limpias (“clean hands”) union, whose president, Miguel Bernad, linked to the ultra-right, was acquitted two months ago after a conviction for extortion.

In a long open letter to citizens published on the X network, Sánchez, currently in his third term, points out: “At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is: is all this worth it?”

“This attack is unprecedented, it is so serious and so brutal that I need to stop and reflect with my wife.”

“We often forget that behind politicians there are people,” he writes. “I am a man deeply in love with my wife, who lives helplessly with the mud that spreads over her day after day.”

In the letter, the prime minister does not give any further details about the alleged accusations against his wife.

Instead, he emphasizes being the victim of a “persecution strategy” “perpetrated for months” by the conservative press and the main right-wing parties, PP and Vox.

“I am not naive; I am aware that they denounce Begoña not because she did something illegal, (…) but because she is my wife. I am also fully aware that the attacks I suffer are not against me, but against what I represent: a progressive political option, supported election after election by millions of Spaniards”.

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Hours after the letter was published, reactions began to appear from all sides.

The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, stated that the prime minister “opened his heart” and “addressed each and every Spaniard in an unprecedented way.” Like everyone in the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the government coalition, she emphasized her support for the prime minister.

The PP spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, complains that Sánchez “dedicated four pages to writing right and ultra-right 14 times and zero lines to give explanations.”

“I don’t know what the deep reasons are that drive Pedro Sánchez, but (he) tends to make tactical moves that no one expects”, ponders Carles Puigdemont, Catalan leader of Junts. “But if this is not a tactical move and the reason is really the Spanish right-wing campaign against his presidency using his family — I know perfectly well how he feels in this case.”

Using the term that spread across the day’s headlines, the former vice-president of the government, Pablo Iglesias, declared: “Pedro understood today what ‘lawfare’ means and that judicial and media actors want to destroy his life.”

Sánchez will go public next Monday (29) to announce his final decision.