Spanish President Pedro Sánchez is ready to resist once again, but this time it's different. Faced with serious signs of corruption surrounding the PSOE's organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán, a man of close confidence for fourteen years, the socialist leader has been decisive in his goal of distancing himself from the alleged corruption and saving himself. Sánchez has forced Santos Cerdán to resign from all his positions, repeatedly asked for "forgiveness" and "apologies" from the public and members, pleaded "ignorance" and "disappointment," will commission an external audit of the party's accounts, and will restructure its federal executive committee. Despite the seriousness of the report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, Sánchez is not giving up. There will be no early elections, no government reform, and he intends to run again in 2027. Contrite and self-exonerated, Sánchez attempts to shield himself in the Moncloa Palace: "Until this morning [Thursday], I was convinced of the integrity" of Santos Cerdán. In other words, Sánchez says he knew nothing of what his number three is accused of and expresses "enormous disappointment and profound sadness" at what is coming to light.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened to him with his immediate entourage. Bad if he didn't know anything, and worse if he had had any clues. He already had to get rid of his former minister and previous secretary of organization, José Luis Ábalos, key to his rise within the PSOE. Ábalos is no longer a member of the party, from which he was expelled. Santos Cerdán has, for the time being, been removed from all his responsibilities. The UCO report points to personal enrichment as a result of commissions in exchange for public works and perhaps illegal financing of the party. This is by no means a minor issue. The democratic regeneration that Sánchez has always championed is losing credibility. And, from a factual and political perspective, what now hangs in the air is the question of whether there is more ammunition in the Madrid mud of scandals against the PSOE or whether Santos Cerdán's card was the great trump card. Be that as it may, this case is serious and delegitimizes the president, no matter how right he is when he looks at the other side of the ideological spectrum and accuses him of a dirty war.
With a politically belligerent justice system stacked against him and a Madrid media landscape that is leaving him without any anchors, the Spanish president is increasingly alone. We will see how far his resilience, and that of his party and his partners, will go. Elections. Sánchez knows that his overwhelming support will not bring him down because what would come next, a PP-Vox coalition, would be much worse for both the left and the Catalan and Basque nationalists. Under democratically healthy political circumstances, Sánchez would file a motion of confidence, and if he lost it, he would go to elections. The pressure will continue and become increasingly louder. His weakness is evident, but his playbook will lead him to try to resist.
