The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has declared himself a victim of lawfare – the use of justice to destroy political rivals – and has shown himself willing to finish the legislature and even run again in general elections in 2027 to fulfill his mandate. commitment to lead, “not monopolize”, the democratic regeneration that, in his opinion, Spain needs. Likewise, the head of the Executive has raised the need to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and has committed to doing so, suggesting a legislative reform to achieve it.
“Hopefully it will have a parliamentary majority for this,” the president wished in an interview in La Ser, in which he offered his first public reaction to the information published last Friday by La Vanguardia about what the PP already used in 2014 to former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to spy on his father-in-law. “I have suffered lawfare,” the president declared. “I have been the object of espionage by Mr. Rajoy’s so-called patriotic police in 2014, when I was elected general secretary of the Socialist Party,” he added.
The head of the Executive, however, has clarified that these practices of the “patriotic police” ended when he arrived at Moncloa after the 2018 motion of censure and, regarding whether his wife has suffered lawfare, he has warned that “as a person I can have my opinion on this, but I am president of the Government of Spain.
Asked why it took so long to realize that lawfare existed in Spain, the head of the Executive criticized himself. “I have been one more victim of a well-designed strategy and a well-oiled mud machine,” said Sánchez, who has listed other people who have suffered similar situations in recent years; Mònica Oltra, Irene Montero, Ada Colau, Nadia Calviño, Carmen Calvo. “Always women,” the president has remarked that in no case has he referred to pro-independence leaders as victims of lawfare.
In any case, Sánchez has reiterated his confidence in justice as he did last Wednesday in Congress a few hours before sharing with the public that he was taking five days without an agenda to reflect on his continuity at the head of the Government following the pseudo-union complaint. Clean Hands admitted to proceedings by a Madrid judge against his wife, Begoña Gómez, for corruption. “Without a doubt, I trust in justice as well as in the separation of powers and in the media, not in the pseudo-media,” he said, to demand “a mobilization of rejection of these behaviors.”
This is how the head of the Executive expressed himself after the decision announced yesterday by himself not to resign as head of the Government to promote a “democratic regeneration.” A few days in which, as he has confessed, he had a bad time. “I have hesitated, I have thought about giving up, I have slept little and I have eaten less,” acknowledged the president, who stressed that with the publication of the letter “I had in mind to express my feelings” so he did not even inform his woman, who was the first to ask him not to resign.
Asked whether the succession debate in the PSOE has been addressed in these five days, Sánchez reiterated that after his reflection he has assumed the commitment to “lead, not monopolize, democratic regeneration” which he sees as “very necessary” in Spain and In this sense, he has assured that he sees himself “in the mood to continue for three years and as long as the Spaniards want with their vote.” It is a task, democratic regeneration, which, in his opinion, “is not done in three days or three months or three years, it transcends this legislature,” the president insisted, pointing out that “if the Spanish and my party wants me to continue being the leader of the Socialist Party, as long as I have the desire, conviction and ideas of transformation for this country I am going to do it”, to then boast of “a model of success” in the face of “the cuts and the precariousness of the past”.
The President of the Government, who has not specified measures to carry out this democratic regeneration that he advocates, beyond a reference to the institutional advertising law, of whose compliance he has expressed doubts, for which he has demanded more transparency, has charged against what he calls the “mud machinery”, a “well-oiled” strategy that he has attributed to “pseudomedia” that publish “hoaxes”, to gatherings that “contaminate the debate”, to parties that “ask innocent people for explanations”, in a clear allusion to PP and Vox, and to far-right organizations that prosecute them, in reference to Clean Hands or Hazte Oír. “Citizens have the constitutional right to truthful information,” stressed the president, for whom “if the adversary is confused with public enemy number 1, we are perverting democracy.”
In any case, the president has insisted that this is not about him, but rather goes further. “They attack us for what I can represent as a progressive project that there is less and less in the world,” warned the head of the Executive, who recalled that this happens in all democracies driven by the ultra-right to knock down progressive projects. In this sense, he has recalled the words of former president José María Aznar: “Whoever can make him do”, words that he has linked with others that Alberto Núñez Feijóo spoke yesterday: “Spain needs a democratic government,” said the leader of the PP . “Is this not a democratic government?” the president asked today.
“It would be frivolous to go out and provide a solution to a problem that affects all democracies,” acknowledged the president, for whom the solution to this issue must be “in accordance with the constitutional order” and, therefore, does not have to involve a change of regime as denounced by the head of the opposition; “transversal”, with the involvement of the Government, Parliament, the parties, the judiciary and the media, and “positive”. “It is not a question of singling out anyone but of joining efforts in a common cause,” Sánchez explained.
Regarding the situation of the CGPJ, with the mandate having expired for more than five years, Sánchez has regretted that April, the deadline given by the European Commission for its mediation demanded by the PP, is ending without there being an agreement for its renewal. “If the PP continues to kidnap the CGPJ, Parliament will need to activate mechanisms to put an end to it,” warned the president, who, when asked whether the Government is considering reforming the majorities for the election of Council members, was not conclusive. “I cannot tell you if it will be a change of majority, but the Government’s responsibility will be to renew and I hope it has a parliamentary majority for this,” he stated.
