The bombshell news of the letter to the citizens in which the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, announces that he plans to resign as a result of the “harassment campaign” against his wife appears today on the front pages of the main European press. In addition to echoing the details of the complaint filed by the pseudo judicial union Manos Liminas against Begoña Gómez, the media echo the “increasingly tense and polarized” climate of Spanish political life (Le Monde) but, in the In the case of publications specialized in community issues, they also speculate on the impact of the outcome of the “drama in Moncloa” (Politico) on the future distribution of senior positions in the Union.
Sánchez is one of the most prominent members of the European socialist family, currently in a minority in the European Council. His name often comes up when reviewing, in media and diplomatic circles, the list of candidates that the second political group of the European Parliament could present when the leadership of the community institutions is designed at the end of June for the next political cycle. Everything indicates that the European People’s Party (EPP) will once again win the elections to the European Parliament in June and, in that case, it will be natural for it to maintain the presidency of the European Commission, as was decided in 2019, when Ursula von der Leyen.
The complex distribution agreed upon five years ago, which included the presidency of the European Central Bank, left the presidency of the European Council in the hands of Charles Michel, a member of the liberal family, the third European group. But this year the expectation is that the European Socialist Party, which won the position of high representative of Foreign Policy (Josep Borrell), will obtain that position this time. And in the informal pools of appointments that so entertain the Brussels bubble, the Portuguese António Costa is mentioned, whose options resurface when the allegations of corruption that led him to resign did not materialize; the Danish Mette Frederiksen, belonging to the most conservative wing, or Sánchez himself, who enjoys high prestige in community circles and has been the most active Spanish leader on the European political scene since José María Aznar.
Brussels is a hotbed of rumors and speculation, but the selection process for senior European officials will not begin seriously until after the June 9 elections. Once the composition of the European Parliament is determined, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven will meet to decide their candidate to preside over the European Commission, depending on the result of the elections but also on the possibilities of gathering sufficient support in the chamber. And, in parallel, the other pieces will be placed: the presidency of the European Council, the high representative position of Foreign Policy and the political color of the next president of the European Chamber. The first meeting to survey the political horizon will be on Monday, June 17, when an informal dinner for European leaders is scheduled. The distribution should be closed at the summit on June 27 and 28, the last of the semester. It is normal but in 2019 it was necessary to call an extraordinary meeting.
“I have never been attached to the position. I am attached to duty, to political commitment and to public service,” Sánchez writes, explains today the Politico Playbook newsletter, the first reading of the morning for thousands of people in Brussels and European diplomatic circles. “Will he continue his public service in Brussels?” they ask before pointing out that the president of the Spanish Government is “more popular” in the community capital than in Madrid and that his hypothetical departure from Spanish political life would come at “the opportune moment.” ” in view of the distribution of the so-called EU top jobs. A “very unrepresentative survey carried out by Playbook among some officials and diplomats” indicates that Sánchez would undoubtedly be a “strong candidate” for the presidency of the European Council, he speculates.
Euractiv, another information portal specialized in community information, also reports on the possible impact of a hypothetical resignation of the President of the Spanish Government. “Sánchez, the star of the European socialists, on the brink of collapse,” reads the headline that opens the aforementioned website this morning. “His resignation would be a serious blow to the European socialists as a whole because their power is evaporating throughout the EU countries” but, at the same time, “such a move would allow the Spanish prime minister to be named the next president of the European Council after the June elections,” says Euractiv.
