“I have decided to continue with even more strength as head of the presidency of the Government,” Pedro Sánchez announced this Monday. In a brief appearance at noon from the steps of the Moncloa palace, which he wanted to cover with solemnity, he thus cleared up the mystery about a resignation that he himself encouraged last Wednesday, in the face of harassment against his wife that he attributes to the right. That night, on TVE, Sánchez assured that Begoña Gómez was the first to tell him not to resign.
Five days of absolute uncertainty about his continuity in office were resolved, in this way, with Sánchez's commitment to promote a generic regeneration of democracy. His decision to remain in office, he assured, “is not a full stop, it is a full stop.” But in his nighttime interview on public television he barely called again for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, for which he did open the door to the latest proposal to unblock its acting president, Vicente Guilarte, and demanded to open a debate to avoid misinformation in the media. “I assume my commitment to work tirelessly, with firmness and serenity, for the pending regeneration of our democracy, and for the advancement and consolidation of rights and freedoms,” he stated in the morning from Moncloa.
So there is no resignation of the president, no government in office, no search for a new investiture, no hasty succession, no motion of confidence, no early elections, nor any of the speculations to which Sánchez himself opened the door with his announcement from last week. Despite the enormous relief expressed by everyone in the Government and the PSOE, attacked by vertigo before a precipice, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the entire Popular Party came out in a rush to ridicule the president's decision. Sumar, a partner in the Government coalition, also demanded that Sánchez give content to his vague commitment to regeneration. And some parliamentary partners, such as ERC, made their displeasure explicit, in the middle of the electoral campaign in Catalonia.
Sánchez went first to inform Felipe VI of his decision to continue in office, in the same way that he conveyed his doubts to him last week. And finally he brought forward his appearance at the Moncloa to eleven in the morning, initially announced for twelve, which was resolved with a statement of just eight minutes, without the presence of the press. The president, as is his custom, once again broke all predictions: even in the Government and the PSOE the impression was already established that he was going to resign.
Sánchez thanked the “shows of solidarity and empathy” he received in these five days, especially from the PSOE, which on Saturday issued unanimous and massive support for him not to resign. “That social mobilization has decisively influenced my reflection,” he acknowledged.
Sánchez recalled the surprising letter to the citizens that he distributed last Wednesday, in which he asked "whether it was worth enduring the harassment that my family has suffered for ten years in exchange for presiding over the Government." “After these days of reflection, I have a clear answer,” he said this Monday.
“No matter how high it may be, there is no honor that justifies the unjust suffering of the people one loves and respects the most, and seeing how an attempt is made to destroy their dignity without the slightest foundation,” he alleged. “I needed to stop and reflect,” he justified, and admitted that this parenthesis generated confusion, but insisted that it was not due to “any political calculation.” “There are times when the only way to move forward is to stop, reflect and decide clearly where we want to walk,” he defended.
And he posed a dilemma: “Either we say enough is enough or this degradation of public life will determine our future, condemning us as a country.” “This is not an ideological issue, it has nothing to do with the legitimate debate between political options. It has to do with the rules of the game,” he noted.
“If we allow deliberate hoaxes to direct the political debate, if we force the victims of these lies to have to prove their innocence against the most basic rule of the rule of law, if we allow the role of women to be relegated again "to the domestic sphere, having to sacrifice her professional career for the benefit of her husband, if we allow unreason to become routine, the consequence will be that we will have done irreparable damage to our democracy," she highlighted. “Demanding unconditional resistance from the leaders targeted by this strategy is putting the focus on the victims and not the aggressors,” she warned.
“My wife and I know that this smear campaign will not stop. We have been suffering from it for ten years. It is serious, but we can handle it,” Sánchez said. And he warned that the only way to reverse the situation is for “the social majority to mobilize in a determined commitment to dignity and common sense, putting a stop to the politics of shame that we have been suffering for too long.” “This is not about the destiny of a particular leader, it is the least important thing, it is about deciding what type of society we want to be,” she said.
Although Sánchez warned that these evils are not exclusive to Spain. “They are part of a global reactionary movement that aspires to impose its regressive agenda through defamation and falsehood, hatred and appeal to fears and threats that do not correspond to science or rationality,” he explained. And he settled: “Let's show the world how democracy is defended. Let's put an end to this mud in the only possible way: through collective, serene, democratic rejection, beyond acronyms and ideologies, which I am committed to leading firmly as President of the Government."
