Political Turmoil As Pedro Sánchez Threatens To Resign

April 26, 2024April 26, 2024 Madrid Metropolitan Perdro Sánchez, spain politics

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that he has suspended public duties and is contemplating resigning from government.

The shock announcement came after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had launched a preliminary investigation into whether the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, had used her government connections to further her private business interests.

“I need time to reflect,” Sánchez wrote in a four-page letter posted on his X account. “I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?”

“Should I continue to lead this government or renounce this highest of honors?” Sánchez wrote. “Despite the right-wing’s caricature of my person, I am not attached to this post … My commitment is to my sense of duty and public service.”

The corruption investigation was initiated following the filing of a lawsuit by Manos Limpias, or “Clean Hands,” a platform with links to ultranationalist groups notorious for filing legal complaints linked to far-right causes.

Spanish law permits individual citizens or organizations to file legal complaints even when they have not been directly affected by the alleged criminal act or any specific evidence provided.

The Manos Limpias platform is headed by lawyer, Miguel Bernad who had been sentenced to four years in prison for extortion but which was later overturned by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.

Justice Minister Félix Bolaños called the new allegations against the wife of the prime minister ‘false’.

Sánchez said that he would make his decision over the weekend and address the nation Monday and reveal whether he will resign.

Sánchez has been in office since 2018 and last year won re-election,and able to form a minority coalition government.