The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said that he will remain in office after days of speculation that he would resign over what he claims is a campaign of harassment by the political right.
Last Wednesday, in an unprecedented move, Mr Sanchez cancelled all engagements to consider his future after a court opened an investigation into his wife, Begoña Gómez, over allegations of influence peddling.
The prime minister insisted the accusations were baseless and had been orchestrated by the political right in cahoots with sectors of the media. Their impact on his family, he said, had caused him to mull resigning.
There had been speculation that Mr Sanchez was indeed planning to step aside, prompting Socialist supporters to demonstrate across the country over the weekend, urging him to remain in office. The resignation rumours were fuelled further when it emerged that he had met King Felipe shortly before his scheduled announcement on Monday.
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However, the 52-year-old said he would remain in office.
“I’ve decided to continue, to go on, if possible even stronger as the prime minister of Spain’s government,” he said. “This decision doesn’t mean business as usual, things are going to be different and I can guarantee that.”
The allegations against Ms Gómez are based on her links to companies which have received government support and public contracts. According to the accusations, she used her position as wife of the prime minister to influence the government’s awarding of a rescue package reportedly worth €475 million for Air Europa airline, to which she had links.
The case has been brought against Ms Gómez by Miguel Bernad, the leader of Clean Hands, a self-styled civil servants’ labour union which has brought a string of lawsuits against politicians, most of which have failed. The Madrid public prosecutor has called for the case to be shelved because of a lack of evidence, which consists exclusively of news cuttings.
In his statement on Monday, Mr Sánchez called for an end to “indiscriminate attacks on innocent people”.
“Either we say enough or this debasement of public life will determine our future, condemning us as a country,” he said. “It is true that I took this step [to consider resigning] for personal reasons, but they are reasons that everyone can understand as their own because they respond to the basic values of a solidarity- and family-based society like Spain’s.”
By remaining in office and resuming the legislature, Mr Sánchez has avoided taking or triggering any of the more drastic steps which had looked possible during his hiatus from public duties. If he had resigned, his government would have continued in a caretaker capacity, with the king having to choose a candidate to form a new parliamentary majority. Alternatively, Mr Sánchez could have called a confidence motion to bolster his position. Some observers had forecast a snap election, although a vote could not have been called until the end of May.
Opposition politicians have criticised Mr Sánchez’s decision to remain in office, having said over recent days that he had no intention of resigning and was simply mobilising Socialist voters.
“He has united his [supporters] at the cost of dividing Spain,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), who described the prime minister’s behaviour over recent days as “an embarrassment”.
Catalonia will hold an election on May 12th and the region’s pro-independence president, Pere Aragonès, whose Catalan Republic Left (ERC) party is a parliamentary ally of the Socialists, accused Mr Sánchez of staging “a comedy and electoral event that lasted five days”.
