Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will break his silence on Monday on whether or not he will resign in response to a bribery investigation into his wife that he says amounts to a harassment campaign.
The 52-year-old, who has been in office since 2018 and was only reappointed for another term in November, is expected to speak at 12:00 p.m. (1000 GMT) at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, his official residence.
Sanchez announced last Wednesday that he was considering resigning after a Madrid court opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence peddling and corruption against his wife Begona Gomez.
“I have to stop and think about whether I should continue to lead the government or whether I should give up this honor,” he wrote in a four-page letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Thousands of supporters gathered outside Sánchez’s Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid on Saturday, chanting “Pedro, stay!”
Sanchez said the action against his wife was part of a “campaign of harassment” against both of them, carried out by a “strong right-wing and far-right media” and supported by the conservative opposition.
The Spanish public prosecutor’s office requested that the investigation be closed on Thursday.
But Sánchez, an expert in political survival who has made a career out of taking political risks, has abandoned all his public duties and retreated into silence.
Last Thursday he was due to launch his party’s campaign for the May 12 regional elections in Catalonia, where his Socialists hope to oust pro-independence supporters from power.
If he does resign, analysts say early elections could be called in July – a year after the last – with or without Sánchez at the helm of the Socialist Party.
The Socialists could also propose that Parliament appoint his successor. Budget Minister Maria Jesus Montero, who is also deputy prime minister, is considered a likely candidate.
If Sánchez decides to stay in office, he could submit a confidence motion in parliament to show that he and his minority government still have the support of most lawmakers.
– “Harassment” campaign –
The court launched its investigation into Sanchez’s wife in response to a complaint from the anti-corruption advocacy group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), whose leader is linked to the far right.
The group, which has filed a series of unsuccessful lawsuits against politicians in the past, said in a statement Wednesday that it based its complaint on media reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
While the court did not give details of the case, online news site El Confidencial said it was related to her ties to several private companies that received state funding or were awarded public contracts.
Sanchez has been vilified by right-wing opponents and the media because his minority government relies on the support of the far left and Catalan and Basque separatist parties to pass laws.
They were particularly angered by his decision to grant amnesty to hundreds of Catalan separatists who faced legal action over their role in the northeast region’s failed bid for independence in 2017.
This amnesty in return for the support of the Catalan separatist parties still needs the final approval of Parliament.
Since Wednesday, the opposition has mocked Sánchez’s decision to step away from public office for a few days, dismissing it as an attempt to rally his supporters.
“A head of government cannot parade himself like a teenager and have everyone running after him begging him not to leave and not to get angry,” Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the main opposition Popular Party, said Thursday.
Sanchez, he said, had exposed Spain to “international disgrace.”
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