Consult here the full text of the Letter to Citizens published by Pedro Sánchez in X after the complaint filed against his wife. “At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is, is all this worth it? Honestly, I don’t know. This attack is unprecedented and so serious and so gross that I need to stop and reflect with my wife,” says the president. in an unusual decision.
Madrid, April 24, 2024
Letter to citizens:
It is not usual for me to address you through a letter. However, the severity of the attacks that my wife and I are receiving, and the need to give a calm response, make me think that this is the best way to express my opinion. I thank you, therefore, for taking a little of your time to read these lines.
As you may already know, and if I do not inform you, a court in Madrid has opened preliminary proceedings against my wife, Begoña Gómez, at the request of a far-right organization called Clean Hands, to investigate alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption in business. .
Apparently, the judge will call those responsible for two digital newspapers that have been publishing on this matter to testify. In my opinion, they are media with a marked right-wing and ultra-right orientation. Logically, Begoña will defend his honorability and will collaborate with Justice in everything required to clarify facts that are as scandalous in appearance as they are non-existent.
Indeed, the complaint by Manos Liminas is based on alleged information from that constellation of ultra-conservative newspapers referred to above. I emphasize the alleged information because, after its publication, we have been denying the falsehoods expressed while Begoña has taken legal action so that these same digital companies rectify what, we maintain, is spurious information.
This strategy of harassment and demolition has been going on for months. Therefore, I am not surprised by the overacting of Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal. In this outrage as serious as it is crude, both are necessary collaborators with a far-right digital galaxy and the Clean Hands organization. In fact, it was Mr. Feijóo who reported the case to the Conflict of Interest Office, asking for me to be disqualified from holding public office for 5 to 10 years.
The complaint was filed twice by said body, whose officials were subsequently disqualified by the leadership of the PP and Vox. Next, they exploited their conservative majority in the Senate and promoted an investigative commission to, as they say, clarify the facts related to this matter. Logically, the case was missing. It is the step they have just taken.
In short, it is an operation of harassment and demolition by land, sea and air, to try to make me weaken politically and personally by attacking my wife.
I’m not naive. I am aware that they are denouncing Begoña not because she has done something illegal, they know there is no case, but because she is my wife. As I am also fully aware that the attacks I suffer are not against me but rather against what I represent: a progressive political option, supported election after election by millions of Spaniards, based on economic progress, social justice and democratic regeneration.
This fight started years ago. First, with the defense we made of the political autonomy of the organization that best represents progressive Spain, the Socialist Party. Fight that we won. Second, after the motion of censure and the successive electoral victories of 2019, the sustained attempt to delegitimize the progressive coalition government in the heat of the ignominious cry of ‘let Txapote vote for you’. They couldn’t bankrupt us either.
The last episode was the general elections of July 23, 2023. The Spanish people voted overwhelmingly for progress, allowing the reissue of a progressive coalition government, against the coalition government of Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal who predicted the conservative media and demographic batteries.
Democracy spoke, but the right and the extreme right, again, did not accept the electoral result. They were aware that the political attack would not be enough and now they have crossed the line of respect for the family life of a President of the Government and the attack on his personal life.
Without any embarrassment, Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal, and the interests that move them, have launched what the great Italian writer, Umberto Eco, called “the mud machine.” That is, trying to dehumanize and delegitimize the political adversary through accusations that are as scandalous as they are false.
This is my reading of the situation that our beloved country is experiencing: a coalition of right-wing and ultra-right interests that do not tolerate the reality of Spain, that do not accept the verdict of the polls, and that are willing to spread mud in order to: first, cover up their obvious corruption scandals and their inaction regarding them; second, hide their total absence of a political project beyond insult and misinformation; and third, use all the means at your disposal to personally and politically destroy the political adversary. This is a coalition of right-wing and far-right interests that extends throughout the main Western democracies, and to which, I guarantee, I will always respond with reason, truth and education.
At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is, is all this worth it? Sincerely I dont know. This attack is unprecedented, it is so serious and so gross that I need to stop and reflect with my wife. Many times we forget that behind politicians there are people. And I, I am not ashamed to say it, am a man deeply in love with my wife who lives helplessly with the mud that is spread on her day in and day out.
I need to stop and reflect. I urgently need to answer the question of whether it is worth it, despite the mud into which the right and the extreme right try to turn politics. Whether I should continue at the head of the Government or resign from this high honor. Despite the caricature that the right and the extreme right in politics and the media have tried to make of me, I have never been attached to the position. Yes, I have it in duty, political commitment and public service. I do not go through the charges, I assert the legitimacy of those high responsibilities to transform and advance the country I love.
All of this leads me to tell you that I will continue working, but that I will cancel my public agenda for a few days so I can reflect and decide which path to take. Next Monday, April 29, I will appear before the media and announce my decision.
Thanks for your time. Sincerely,
Pedro Sánchez.
