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Pedro Sánchez’s allies have urged him to remain in office as the Spanish prime minister weighs whether to quit after right-wing attacks that led to a graft inquiry into his wife.
The Socialist PM, in power since 2018, rocked the country on Wednesday by saying he would spend the next few days reflecting on his future after a judge opened a preliminary probe into his wife over corruption allegations.
The opposition People’s party (PP) accused him on Thursday of creating a power vacuum in order to garner “compassion” from voters.
María Jesús Montero, deputy prime minister, said allies were seeking to send Sánchez “positive energy” as doubts proliferated over the basis for the judge’s move, which was prompted by a complaint from Manos Limpias, a campaign group with far-right links.
A public prosecutor on Thursday filed an appeal to dismiss the case. It was opened by the judge following a complaint from the group that comprised press clippings from right-leaning news organisations.
Manos Limpias — or Clean Hands — acknowledged that some of the stories could turn out to be false. “It will now be up to the investigating judge to verify whether or not these press reports are true,” it said on Thursday.
In its complaint the group alleged that Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, had received favours from private businesses that won government tenders and were awarded public funds.
Manos Limpias alleged that Gómez received favours from executives of Air Europa and its parent company, Globalia, in her capacity as director of a university research centre. The campaign group links her activity to a €475mn bailout the airline received in late 2020. Sánchez described all the supposed wrongdoing as “non-existent”.
The two companies said last month that they had always acted within the law and asked to be “kept out of the political fray”.
In an open letter to the country, Sánchez said he was the victim of a years-long campaign of “harassment and destruction” orchestrated by right-wing forces including the PP and the far-right Vox party. He will announce his decision on Monday.
Montero said on Thursday: “Right now we are all very focused on making sure that the decision he takes on Monday is to continue at the head of a project that is essential for this country.”
Emiliano García-Page, a Socialist regional leader, said the PM had taken an “emotional decision” by publishing the letter.
Sánchez wrote: “I legitimately ask myself: ‘Is it all worth it?’ I honestly don’t know.” A former Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said his message to Sánchez was: “Of course it’s worth it, Pedro.”
The PP’s attacks on Sánchez continued on Thursday. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the vocal head of the Madrid regional government, said the letter was “disgraceful because it leaves us in a power vacuum”.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, PP leader, said the premier had launched a “political survival operation” seeking to “mobilise people with their compassion because he can no longer do so with his record”.
“But the image of an entire nation cannot be hijacked by the Socialist party’s electoral and judicial strategy,” he added.
Sánchez has various options if he does not want to return to business as usual next week. He could submit himself to a confidence vote in parliament, seeking to consolidate his position by regrouping the seven parties whose votes enabled him to secure another term in office last November.
If he resigns, he could either seek to anoint a new Socialist leader who would need to be approved by the current parliament, or dissolve parliament and call a general election. But because Spanish law does not allow parliament to be dissolved more than once in a 12-month period, a new election could not happen before July.