”I have decided to continue on with even more strength at the helm of the government of Spain,” he said in a televised speech after informing King Felipe VI of the decision earlier Monday.
But many wondered if it was necessary to keep the country in suspense for five days, and had expected Sanchez to either resign or to call a confidence motion.
Sanchez said after days of reflection, he saw his continuity as a new chapter, and said that he will dedicate his efforts to the regeneration of political life and to expel what he considers to be a campaign of lies and discredit from the far-right.
”It is a decision that does not mean a return to the status quo, this will mark a before and after, I promise you that,” Sanchez said, without detailing what steps he could take to curtail ”the smear campaign” he said he and his family is facing.
His resignation would have deprived Europe of a prominent Socialist prime minister ahead of European elections in June and at a time when the centre-right increasingly holds sway.
Although he stated that his decision was not based on political calculations, the prime minister has managed to mobilise his electorate and introduce a new narrative for the upcoming European elections, where one of the central issues could be defence of democratic integrity and the way politics are conducted, as well as the protection of institutions against the far-right.
In an emotional letter posted on X, Sanchez wrote that he could no longer just stand aside and watch his wife being targeted by a legal probe brought by allegations by a right-wing platform that accused her of using her position to influence business deals.
The group, Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, acknowledged that the complaint was based on newspaper articles. Madrid’s public prosecutor has said it should be thrown out due to a lack of evidence.
Sanchez blamed the investigation against his wife on online news sites politically aligned with the leading opposition conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party that spread what he called ”spurious” allegations.
The Popular Party, however, said Sanchez’s behaviour was unbecoming of a leader. That party and Vox have regularly compared him to a dictator and a traitor to Spain.
”(Sanchez) has pulled the leg of a nation of 48 million people,” Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said. ”He neglected his duties for five days as part of a campaign ploy.”
