Spain: socialist mobilization to ask Sanchez not to resign

Thousands of supporters of the Spanish Socialist Party gathered on Saturday to ask Prime Minister Petro Sanchez not to resign, instead less than 48 hours from the expected announcement of its decision.

Arriving in front of the organization's headquarters in Madrid, where its leaders were meeting, they chanted slogans like “Pedro, president.” Supporters brandished signs reading “Spain needs you”, “Pedro, don't give up”, in support of the socialist leader who suspended his activities until this announcement.

The 52-year-old socialist, in power since 2018, took Spain by surprise on Wednesday by putting his resignation as head of government in the balance after the announcement by a Madrid court of opening of a preliminary investigation for influence peddling and corruption against his wife, Begoña Gómez, following a complaint from an association close to the extreme right.

“I need to stop and think” in order to decide “if I should continue to be at the head of the government”, justified Pedro Sánchez, in a four-page letter published on social networks, without even inform his closest ministers, some of them said.

“I hope that Sanchez will say on Monday that he is staying,” Sara Domínguez, a thirty-year-old consultant, told AFP who finds that his government “has taken very good measures for women, LGBT+ people, minorities”.

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If he leaves, the possibility exists that “the extreme right will govern and that will set us back in terms of rights and freedoms”, believes José María Díez, a 44-year-old civil servant from Valladolid, in the north of the country.

Inside the party headquarters, its leaders gathered to ask the president of the government to stay.

“President, stay. Pedro, stay, we are together, let's go, we must move forward, we must continue to move this country forward, Spain cannot go backwards,” declared the number two in the government, the Minister of Budget María Jesús Montero.

Thousands of supporters of the Spanish Socialist Party gather to ask Prime Minister Petro Sanchez not to resign in front of the PSOE party headquarters in Madrid, April 27, 2024 © AFP – OSCAR DEL POZO

After his shock announcement, Mr. Sanchez suspended his public activities when he was to launch the crucial regional campaign on May 12 in Catalonia on Thursday evening.

Among the avenues considered by observers is the announcement of a question of confidence in order to show Spain that it and its minority government are still supported by a majority of the Chamber of Deputies.< /p>

If the opposition has been denouncing since Wednesday evening the “victimization” and the “spectacle” of Pedro Sánchez, the hypothesis of a resignation cannot be completely excluded, according to analysts.

The right-wing opposition doubts a resignation and denounces “victimization” and a “spectacle”.

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