Pedro Sánchez will reveal tomorrow whether he resigns or not, but the deep reasons for his decision will probably not be clear. In the destiny that the socialist who has governed since June 2018 will give himself, there will be a dose of political strategy, combined with concern about the judicial proceedings against his wife, Begoña Gómez. But in his situation there is another ingredient: the impact on the rulers of the exacerbation of attacks by their adversaries, especially when the attacks refer to their partner, family or private activities. We have seen cases in Europe of politicians who have found themselves in situations with these elements.
This is the case of the president of the Republic of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputová, a liberal and environmentalist lawyer elected in April 2019, who decided not to run for a second term. In June 2023, Caputová announced that, “out of consideration for the family,” she would not run in the presidential elections scheduled for the spring of this year. The political environment had been brutally tense – and continues to be this way today – due to the desire of the populist social democrat Robert Fico to become prime minister again, something he achieved in the legislative elections last October.
In the campaign and later as prime minister, Fico has attacked the president: without providing any evidence, he describes her as an “American agent.” Caputová, a mother of two daughters, said she would not run for reelection due to the harassment and death threats she receives. The presidential elections were held on April 7 and the winner was Peter Pellegrini – an ally of Fico – who will succeed Caputová as head of state on June 15.
In Hungary that was preparing for the legislative elections in April 2022, six opposition parties agreed on a common candidate to try to defeat the ultra-conservative Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who had then been in power for eleven consecutive years. They opted for Péter Márki-Zay, an independent politician, mayor of a small city, conservative, Catholic and father of seven children, a profile that they considered an asset against Orbán, who could not attack him there.
However, the well-oiled electoral propaganda of Fidesz, the prime minister’s party, and the powerful related media, presented Márki-Zay as a puppet, superimposing his religious faith on a referendum on LGBTQ issues that the Government scheduled for the same election day. Finally, for many and diverse reasons, including the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, Viktor Orbán won again at the polls.
In Finland, where a respectful political climate reigns, in the summer of 2022 a video of a private activity of the then prime minister, the social democrat Sanna Marin, revealed by a tabloid, unleashed messages of a sexist nature and called into question her fitness for office.
Marin was 36 years old and dancing at a party with friends. In the video someone said “the flour gang,” which was interpreted as an allusion to cocaine. Faced with the demands of the opposition (conservatives and far-right) and her government partners, Marin took a drug test, which came back negative. The leader appeared contrite at a press conference in which she claimed the right to dance and have fun, and she ended up overcoming that crisis. In April 2023, the Social Democratic Party lost the elections and Sanna Marin left the scene, but no one attributes it to that episode.
