Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has published a letter in which he pondered whether to continue on as premier.
In the four-page letter released on the evening of April 24 and addressed to the Spanish citizens, Sánchez asked “is all this worth it?” a reference to what he called the “severity of the attacks” he and his wife have suffered from opposition parties and civil society organisations.
He announced he would cancel all his scheduled public activities for the next few days to “decide which road to take”.
“I need time to stop and reflect … if I need to continue leading the Government or renounce this high honour.”
Sánchez said he would let the country know about his decision on April 29.
The Prime Minister acknowledged “a court in Madrid has opened preliminary proceedings against my wife, Begoña Gómez, at the request of a far-right organisation called Manos Limpias”.
According to Sánchez, the complaint against Gómez “is based on alleged information” provided by “a constellation of ultra-conservative newspapers”.
Over the past two weeks, Spanish media leaked documents that alleged Gómez used her influence to lobby on behalf of private companies at the height of the Covid pandemic to help them secure Government contracts.
Sánchez said then he would be “willing to testify” before the Senate, which the opposition’s centre-right Partido Popular (PP) controls, regarding the alleged corruption scandal.
In addition, the Spanish National High Court has reopened the “Pegasus” case over alleged espionage that targeted Sánchez and others.
His letter also referred directly to opposition leaders Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the PP and Santiago Abascal from the conservative VOX party over what he said was their promotion of a months-long “strategy of harassment and demolition”.
“I am not surprised at Mr Feijóo’s and Mr Abascal’s overreaction,” Sánchez wrote. He accused both of being collaborators of a “digital far-right galaxy”.
Feijóo reacted, stating: “This is not a political matter.
“The Prime Minister, his party, his surroundings, and his Government have a judicial problem. From now until Monday, he is going to try to play victim and polarise the Spanish society.”
Abascal said: “We do not know if he is leaving to prepare his legal defence.
“We do not know if this is one of his propaganda manoeuvrings. What we do know is that he became premier with the greatest act of political corruption,” a reference to Sánchez’s role in the Amnesty Law for Catalan separatists.
The Socialists and Democrats (S&D), though, signalled its support for the premier, deeming “intolerable” what it called the political and personal “harassment” of him.
