MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ended days of speculation about his future Monday by saying he would continue in office “with even more strength.”
Sánchez shocked his country last Wednesday when he took five days off to consider his future after a court decided to open an investigation against his wife over corruption allegations.
“I have decided to continue at the head of the Spanish government with even more vigor,” he said in a televised address after welcoming King Felipe VI. informed of the decision early Monday.
His resignation would have deprived Europe of its longest-serving socialist prime minister, currently in charge of a major European Union country, just before June’s European elections.
“It is a decision that does not mean a return to the status quo, it will be a before and after, I promise you,” Sánchez said, without elaborating on what steps he might take to end “the smear campaign,” as he called it says contain and his family is at the door.
The euro zone’s fourth-largest economy has been in limbo since Sánchez, prime minister since 2018, published an emotional letter on X on Wednesday before holed up in his Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s residence in Madrid. In it, he said the actions against his wife were too personal an attack on his family and that he needed time to decide his priorities.
In that letter, in which he declared that he was “deeply in love” with his wife, Begoña Gómez, he said that he could no longer simply stand by as she became the target of a legal investigation based on allegations from a right-wing platform that she accused her of using her position to influence business deals.
The group Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, acknowledged that the complaint was based on newspaper articles. Spanish prosecutors say it should be thrown out.
The anticipation was so great on Monday that Spain’s state broadcaster set up a 10-minute countdown on its morning news talk show before his on-screen announcement.
From the steps of the Moncloa Palace, Sánchez said that he and his wife “know that this campaign to discredit them will not stop” but that he had decided he could not give his opponents the satisfaction of giving up.
The rallies of his supporters in recent days played a role in his decision, he said.
Essentially, Sánchez had four options: resign, get a vote of confidence in parliament, call new elections or stay in office.
Any of them could derail key legislative plans as well as a crucial election in the Catalonia region in May and European Parliament elections in June.
Sánchez said that the letter, the unprecedented pause that was criticized and his final decision to stay in office “were not made out of political calculation.”
“I recognize that I have shown a level of personal intimacy that is not normally allowed in politics,” he added.
Whether or not it was really about concern for his family, it will have political repercussions.
“He gave himself a free campaign event for five full days. “Those who were with him will now be with him until death,” Montserrat Nebrera, a political analyst and professor of constitutional law at the International University of Catalonia, told The Associated Press.
“It looks like a campaign move to polarize the electorate between those who are for him and those who are against him,” she said. “It should have an impact on the elections in Catalonia and even more so on the European elections. Elections that didn’t look particularly good for the Socialists.”
Sánchez, 52, was able to form a new left-wing minority coalition government in November to serve another four-year term thanks to the extremely fragile support of a handful of small regional parties. While it is popular internationally, it is loved or despised in Spain.
Sánchez blamed investigations against his wife on online news sites politically linked to the leading opposition conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox party that spread “false” allegations.
His supporters say this should be a wake-up call to respond against unfounded attacks that Sánchez says are poisoning Spanish politics.
However, the Popular Party described Sánchez’s behavior as frivolous, juvenile and unworthy of a leader. The Popular Party and the far-right Vox Party have been relentlessly attacking Sánchez for years, regularly comparing him to a dictator and traitor to Spain for his dealings with separatist parties that support him in parliament.
“We live in a society that teaches us and requires us to give full throttle no matter what,” Sánchez said in his short speech. “But sometimes in life the only way to move forward is to stop, think and make decisions. Clarity about which path we want to take.”
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Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.
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