Madrid, Spain – Millions of people in Spain sat in front of their televisions as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivered a live address to the nation announcing that he would continue to lead the government.
Monday’s announcement capped five days of high tension. Last week the country appeared rudderless as Sánchez pondered his future amid a corruption scandal involving his wife.
“I have decided to continue leading the Spanish government with even more vigor. “Things will be different,” Sanchez said, staring grimly into the camera.
The prime minister denied the allegations against his wife Begona Gomez and said he and his family had been the target of a smear campaign by political opponents for a decade.
He also dismissed accusations that the five days he spent pondering his future in office were politically motivated, saying it was time to reflect on the growing polarization of Spanish politics.
“For too long we have allowed this filth to corrupt our political and public life with toxic methods that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Do we really want that for Spain?” he asked.
“I acted with a clear conviction: either we say ‘enough is enough’ or this deterioration in public life will determine our future and condemn us as a country.”
At the El Padron bar in Madrid, Heracles Sanchez was not impressed.
“In the end it was all just a trick. He kept the whole country waiting while he pretended to be worried about this court case, and all the while he carried on as usual,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I think he just wanted to gain support for his cause because there was an election coming up. If there is nothing against his wife in this court case, the court should decide.”
Voters will go to the polls in key regional elections in Catalonia on May 12, while European Parliament elections are scheduled for June.
Sanchez has long been a hate figure for elements of the Spanish right who oppose his amnesty deal with Catalan separatists in return for supporting his government and his political ties to EH Bildu, a party linked to the defunct Basque separatist group ETA.
Far-right groups have held demonstrations for months outside the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in Madrid, smashing an effigy of Sanchez.
Pedro J. Ramirez, editor of the right-wing online newspaper El Espanol, said Sanchez had staged a “political operation.”
“I agree that we need a political renewal, as Sanchez said, but that does not mean that we have to restrict judges in their work through such measures,” he told state television RTVE.
On the other side of Madrid, Gema Alamar, who runs a software company, took time out from work at her local bar to grab a coffee and watch Sanchez on TV.
“I’m glad he stayed. These claims are clearly nonsense and were made up by people who want to see Sánchez out of power. They will do anything to harm him,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Our democracy is poisoned by all this nonsense. We need to wake up and see the difference between democratic debate and politically motivated bile.”
What’s behind the drama?
The drama began on Wednesday when a court in Madrid opened a preliminary investigation into allegations against Gomez by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), which describes itself as a union but mainly brings legal cases related to far-right causes.
The group said in a Facebook post that it was relying on media reports in the lawsuit.
On Thursday, Madrid’s law enforcement agency said it was appealing private charges against Gomez for alleged influence peddling and corporate corruption.
Ana Carmona, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Seville, said she did not believe Sanchez’s words would change the political environment.
“A statement from the Prime Minister will not change the polarized political culture in Spain. To do this, the country needs real gestures,” she told Al Jazeera.
“What will be crucial is how the opposition parties and the country react to Sanchez’s words. Perhaps Sánchez should have called for a vote of confidence in parliament. In this way, it would spark debate and engagement on how Sanchez is trying to change the political culture,” she said.
Opposition parties accuse Sanchez of taking five days away from his official duties to consider his future as merely a political maneuver.
Isabel Ayuso – the populist-conservative head of Madrid’s regional government who is seen as a possible future prime minister – told reporters: “The only thing he wants is power without checks, without counterweights.”
Oriol Bartomeus, a political expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said the climate of political polarization was nothing new in Spain, where democracy was only restored in 1978 after a long dictatorship.
However, he said Sanchez had learned from history and would go on the attack rather than give in to pressure.
“I see a lot of similarities with a situation here 30 years ago, when the then socialist government faced a lot of criticism for corruption scandals and its policy was to resist. I think Sanchez has learned from history and will also attack.”