While Pedro Sánchez remains missing from the scene since last Wednesday, when he opened a parenthesis of reflection until next Monday he communicates his decision to resign or continue as head of the Government, in the face of the “harassment and demolition operation” suffered by his wife, a PSOE, still in shock, remains in suspense and expectation, postpones pending decisions, tries to avoid immersing itself in a leadership crisis with a succession debate, and dedicates all its efforts to preventing its boss from throwing in the towel, with unsuspected consequences, and for the right to win a game in which it has been committed since 2018, when it was evicted from the Moncloa after an unexpected motion of censure.
In the event that the head of the Executive chooses to resign, however, the designated successor, at least in office, would be María Jesús Montero, whom Sánchez himself chose as first vice president of the Government and deputy general secretary of the PSOE. The Sevillian leader has been Minister of Finance since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa six years ago, and she is currently her number two in the Government and also in the PSOE. But Montero herself is the first who, in these moments of absolute uncertainty, avoids any succession debate, waiting for Sánchez to issue his final “verdict” next Monday on what she will do. All movements remain focused, for now, on the president not leaving.
“I don’t want to make any proposals at this moment, because I am absolutely focused on how, together, we are capable of helping the president to have enough strength and enough courage to be able to continue,” said Montero in La Sexta. “I am focused solely and exclusively on that,” he insisted. And he has once again transmitted “courage and strength” to Sánchez. “We are many behind,” he stressed.
“I wish, and I have concentrated all my strength, that when he communicates his decision on Monday, it is to convey that he has the strength to be able to continue and therefore that the project moves forward,” Montero reiterated. The vice president has rejected, in any case, that the reflection process opened by Sánchez is a “pantomime”, as the Popular Party has accused her. “Anyone who knows him knows perfectly well that the president has never bluffed in his life,” she concluded. And she has denounced the strategy of “harassment and demolition of the political adversary” that she has attributed to the PP.
In this same line of containing the succession debate in the face of a possible departure of Sánchez, two other ministers spoke out this Friday who were also, along with Montero, at the meeting that their hard core held at the Moncloa on Wednesday night to analyze the situation, after the President of the Government announced the open parenthesis: Félix Bolaños and Óscar Puente. “We are not in any other scenario other than that the president, after this process of personal reflection, continues with his work as president of the Government, because he is the president that the Spanish people and the Cortes Generales have elected, and therefore he is a president not only legitimate but also democratic,” said the Minister of the Presidency and Justice. “The scenario is that we can, starting Monday, continue governing as normal and with the president at the helm,” Bolaños confided. And the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has corroborated this: “I hope it concludes with a decision that gives continuity to your project.”
In the same sense of avoiding the succession debate, in the event that Sánchez resigns, the spokesperson for the socialist group in Congress, Patxi López, has expressed himself. “By defending Pedro Sánchez we are defending democracy and the political system of this country, and we socialists are not going to be alone but we are going to be many more, millions of people, socialists, progressives and good people,” he assured. “And we are not speculating, because we are doing everything possible so that Pedro Sánchez moves forward and continues to be the President of the Government, because we owe him a lot,” Patxi López stressed.
Hoping that, in the absence of Sánchez, the meeting of the PSOE federal committee this Saturday will be transformed into a great act of support for its general secretary – not only by all the socialist territorial leaders at the Ferraz headquarters, but also by the militants and sympathizers who will gather at its doors – several socialist leaders have insisted this Friday on trying to encourage the President of the Government to remain in office, encouraging the mobilization of progressive citizens to exhibit his support, and denounce the right-wing strategy to overthrow the head of the Executive at all costs. María Jesús Montero has thus highlighted that the meeting of the highest body of the PSOE between congresses will express its “unconditional support” for Sánchez.
The PSOE leadership, meanwhile, has chosen to postpone until next Tuesday, once Sánchez’s decision on his future is known, the meeting of the federal list commission that will approve the party’s final candidacy for the European elections. The federal committee on Saturday will limit itself to ratifying that the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, will lead the European candidacy.
In this way, the federal committee this Saturday in Ferraz will be completely converted into an act of closed support for Sánchez, by no longer addressing the ratification of the list for the Europeans, which was the initial reason for calling this conclave. Montero indicated this Friday that the names on the list have already been chosen, but he still has to distribute his positions in the candidacy.
Beyond the internal speeches planned in the federal committee – among them, those of María Jesús Montero herself, Teresa Ribera, Eneko Andueza and Salvador Illa, a rally has been called at 11 in the morning at the doors of Ferraz to support to Sanchez. The socialist federations of various territories are hiring buses with the aim of facilitating the movement of people interested in joining the rally.
The PSOE’s original plan was for the federal list commission to propose this Friday a candidacy for the European elections of June 9 – which is only agreed to be headed by Vice President Ribera – and for it to be ratified by the federal committee on Saturday. However, now the federal committee will delegate its final approval to the list commission next Tuesday.
It will be a day after Sánchez announces the decision he is adopting about his future, after on Wednesday he reported by letter that he was opening a reflection process in the face of the right-wing offensive against his wife.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, whose own rule is never to publicly assess judicial resolutions – appealing to the separation of powers and judicial independence – this Friday broke his own rule to ensure that it is “ clear and evident” that the complaint by Manos Limpas against Begoña Gómez suffers from “no incriminating content”, as it is based on hoaxes and falsehoods. For him, he has considered, after remembering his 30 years in the judicial career, that the only solution to the presentation of the complaint would have been a free dismissal. That is, the file, as requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, after the judge to whom the complaint was submitted admitted it for processing without relying on the criteria of the Public Ministry.
“And the last straw is that the complainant herself recognizes that there are falsehoods,” criticized the former judge of the National Court, who has also referred to the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court that prevents opening criminal proceedings based on journalistic news. Grande-Marlaska has criticized that “the reputational damage” to the wife of the President of the Government “has already been done.” In this way, the head of the Interior has referred to a personal case, in which a publication accused her husband of having 30 million euros in a tax haven. “The damage to my husband and I has already been done, but if a complaint is filed based on that false information; the damage is complementary…”, she added.
