“Not a euro cent.” This is the value that was unanimously granted, as Pedro Sánchez usually remembers, to the survival of the first coalition government between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, which he formed in January 2020, after winning his investiture by a slim simple majority. But, as the president himself always remembers, that Executive, despite being left in the hands of an ERC that a year before dynamited its first mandate after the motion of censure, enjoyed great stability, managing to approve three consecutive general State budgets and more of 200 laws.
Sánchez is now celebrating the first hundred days since his last investiture, in November 2023, this time with a coalition government between the PSOE and Sumar and with a mandate that is presumed even more difficult as it is also in the hands of Junts per Catalunya . The president insists that the new legislature will be as long and fruitful as the previous one: “The elections are in 2027, I have all the time in the world,” he said last Wednesday, before meeting in Rabat with Mohamed VI.
The leader of the PSOE regrets that the PP did not grant him even 24 hours of respite again, but these first hundred days since his last investiture coincide with a real political storm that keeps the course of the legislature in uncertainty. The Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, yesterday trusted in the resistance “in the most difficult moments, when the storm rages most strongly.” Just like now.
Last week was terrible for Sánchez. It started with the collapse of the PSOE in the Galician elections of February 18 and culminated with the alleged corruption scandal for which Koldo García, who was personal assistant to the former Minister of Transport and former organizational secretary of Ferraz, José Luis Ábalos, was arrested until his termination in July 2021.
Meanwhile, the processing of the Amnesty law that allowed Sánchez's new investiture remains blocked, while Carles Puigdemont does not give in. And there is already a deadline, next March 7, to be able to close an agreement with Junts in Congress, while the possibility of approving the first general state budgets of the new term remains up in the air.
If it is not the perfect storm for Sánchez... it is very similar.
The president, however, makes a point of growing in the face of difficulties when he finds himself on the edge of the precipice. If not, the most important thing, the most urgent thing is to try to shake off the shadow of corruption that lurks with the Koldo case.
This is the first objective of the week. Former Minister Ábalos refuses to resign from his seat in Congress, as he is not cited in the judicial investigation or in the tax accusation, even to alleviate the political pressure and the offensive with which the PP will try to corner Sánchez in the session control next Wednesday.
The pressure on Ábalos from Sánchez – “the fight against corruption has to be relentless, no matter where it comes from and whoever falls” – and from María Jesús Montero – “I know what I would do” – did not seem to have any effect. “Zero tolerance towards the corrupt, whoever they are, wherever they come from,” Alegría reiterated yesterday.
And the PSOE executive, which meets this Monday in Ferraz, is considering adopting a decision if Ábalos does not hand in his deputy certificate. Sánchez, many think, needs to let go of some ballast to face the complex panorama that lies ahead of him, already quite complicated, without wasting time.
The President of the Government is simultaneously trying to unblock this new mandate: “There will be an Amnesty law,” he assures with absolute confidence. “And there will be four years of legislature, like the previous one,” he insists imperturbably.
Sánchez seeks to quickly turn the bitter page of the socialist electoral debacle in Galicia, heading towards the elections in Euskadi, already set by Iñigo Urkullu for next April 21.
The PSOE leadership is confident of being able to revalidate the coalition government led by the PNV, in a territory where the PP continues to be “irrelevant.” “There we will meet again,” Ferraz's spokesperson, Esther Peña, challenged the PP before the new electoral appointment.
Sánchez, meanwhile, highlights the achievements of these first hundred days of the new mandate to achieve "more employment, more rights and more coexistence." “I'm going to sweat every last drop,” he promises. Of these hundred days, the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage and the revaluation of pensions, the reform of the Constitution to eliminate the term handicapped, the recovery of several bills that declined in the previous legislature - equal representation, sustainable mobility - stand out. and the extension and expansion of the anti-crisis social shield. At Moncloa they point out, as the best example of the country's strength, the new investment of almost 2,000 million euros by Microsoft in Spain.
And Sánchez, in turn, maintains an intense international agenda, which usually brings him greater satisfaction than the always stormy internal political scene. After last week's trip to Morocco, today – after attending the inauguration of Mobile in Barcelona and meeting with managers from Meta, Ericsson and Nokia – he will travel to Paris to participate in an aid summit for Ukraine. And he already has upcoming visits planned to Brazil and Chile, to meet with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gabriel Boric.
