Resignation or not ? Spain is suspended from the announcement of its Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

L'opposition de droite tourne Pedro Sánchez en ridicule, l'accusant de vouloir se faire passer pour une victime. MAXPPP – Nicolas Landemard/Le Pictorium

L'Espagne est suspendue à l'annonce de Pedro Sanchez, le Premier ministre qui pourrait annoncer sa démission ce lundi 29 avril.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will break his silence this Monday, April 29 and announce to the country whether he is resigning or not, after the opening of an investigation against his wife ? In power since 2018, the 52-year-old socialist leader must speak to the press at a time which has not yet been specified.

Used to outbursts and blows, Sánchez stunned Spain by putting his resignation in the balance this Wednesday, April 24 after the announcement by a Madrid court to open a preliminary investigation for influence peddling and corruption against his wife, Begoña Gómez.

"I need to stop and think" to decide "whether I should continue to be at the head of the government", he wrote in a four-page letter, published on that he was to launch this Thursday evening the regional campaign of May 12 in Catalonia, a vote of national scope in which his Socialist Party hopes to drive the separatists from power.

Scandant "Pedro, stay!", thousands of sympathizers gathered this Saturday, April 27 in front of the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Madrid to ask the Prime Minister not to leave his post.

Elections or question of confidence ?

If he resigns, new early elections could be called after those of July 23, with or without him at the head of the Socialist Party (PSOE). The PSOE could also decide to present the inauguration, as Prime Minister, of another of its officials.

If he remains in his post, Pedro Sánchez could choose to submit to a question of confidence in order to show the opposition that he has the support of ;#39;a majority of deputies.

The investigation against the wife of Pedro Sánchez, placed under the seal of investigative secrecy, was opened following a complaint from the association "Manos limpias" (Clean Hands), a collective close to the extreme right.

It relates in particular, according to the online media El Confidencial, to the links established by Begoña Gómez with the Globalia group, sponsor of the foundation in which she worked, at the time when Air Europa, an airline belonging to Globalia, was negotiating with the government Sánchez obtaining public aid.

This company actually received, in November 2020, 475 million euros, from a 10 billion fund intended to support strategic companies in difficulty due to of the pandemic. But dozens of others followed, including several of its competitors (Iberia, Vueling, Volotea…).

The prosecution on Thursday requested the closure of this investigation, while Manos Limpias admitted that his complaint was based solely on press articles, but the judge in charge of the case did not revealed his intentions again.

"Teenage show"

A figure despised by the opposition, Pedro Sánchez, who governs with the extreme left and enjoys the support of Basque and Catalan separatists, wants to see in this affair a campaign orchestrated by "a coalition of right-wing and far-right interests" who "do not accept the verdict of the ballot box".

"This is a harassment and demolition operation to shake me up politically and on a personal level by attacking my wife", he wrote in his letter. Very polarized, the political context has become very tense in recent months in Spain due to the fierce opposition of the right to an amnesty law for separatists involved in the secession attempt of Catalonia in 2017.

The right-wing opposition has been ridiculing Pedro Sánchez since Wednesday, accusing him of wanting to pass himself off as a victim. "A government leader can't make a spectacle of himself like a teenager so that everyone starts running after him begging him not to leave and not to get angry, quipped the leader of the Popular Party (right), Alberto Núñez Feijóo.