The flood of ongoing legal cases against the political and family environment of Pedro Sánchez – including his wife, Begoña Gómez, his brother, David Sánchez, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the last two PSOE organization secretaries, former minister José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán – keeps all government action overshadowed and increases political pressure from both the opposition and the investiture’s partners and allies. But the head of the Executive insists on contrasting his management with the political, media, and judicial “noise” in which he is increasingly involved. Last Wednesday from Rome, after meeting with the Pope, he argued that this whole succession of open investigations, in his opinion, “does not at all challenge” the Government’s action in these eight years of mandate, which he also intends to push forward until the legislature ends.
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Just this Friday, Sánchez highlighted the growth of the average salary in Spain – 23% between 2018 and 2024 – above inflation, while low wages increased by 42%, doubling the inflation rise. “Against the media noise, the reality of this country: citizens who continue gaining purchasing power thanks to the policies of this Government,” he emphasized.
Next, the head of the Executive spoke at the presentation of the government plan for cultural action abroad, at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid. In this event, he defended the values of freedom, plurality, and dialogue, “in a time accustomed to much confrontation, much conflict, and, unfortunately, much noise,” in a veiled reference to the complex scenario he faces amid the cascade of legal cases.
Since last week when Zapatero was judicially charged, and this week when agents from the Civil Guard’s central operative unit (UCO) returned to the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz to request information about the Leire Díez case, Sánchez has tried to maintain his public agenda, presenting the campaign against this summer’s forest fires, the social plan in the fight against climate change, and today, the cultural action plan abroad.
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Meanwhile, both the Government and the PSOE leadership insisted this Friday on denouncing the alleged plot to try to bring down Sánchez without waiting for the general elections, and on trying to shift the focus to the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, due to the supposed leaks of police and judicial operations, as Minister Óscar Puente did the day before.
The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, thus ruled out an early election and assured that “leaks” used politically by Feijóo and other PP leaders have been evidenced, “anticipating operations in a reserved judicial sphere.” “It is striking,” the minister warned. “Any citizen seeing these leaks is aware that something strange is going on,” he pointed out. “What I see is Feijóo anticipating and making announcements of procedures,” he insisted.
The PSOE executive spokesperson, Montse Mínguez, expanded on the thesis that there is an operation of “harassment and takedown against the Government.” “There are people playing with marked cards,” she warned. And she agreed that Feijóo had “privileged information” before Zapatero’s charge was made effective or before the UCO returned to the Ferraz headquarters to request information about the Leire Díez case.
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