Sánchez goes on the offensive: he distances himself from Ábalos and Cerdán, denounces persecution of the family and boasts about government action

MadridIt has been almost a year since Pedro Sánchez was forced to appear before Congress to explain the judicial investigations that tarnish the PSOE. This Wednesday he did it again in the face of the unstoppable trickle of cases that expand the list of suspects related to the Spanish president and with a final ruling for corruption against the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos. Unlike the appearance on July 9 of last year, in which the head of the executive presented a battery of anti-corruption measures to deal with these cases, on this occasion Sánchez has gone on the offensive without making any new proposals. In an initial half-hour speech, the socialist leader distanced himself from both Ábalos and Santos Cerdán, his two former organization secretaries, defended José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and denounced "persecution" against his family. In addition, the head of the executive boasted about his government's actions. "There should be no shadow of a doubt about the executive's actions," he proclaimed.

In line with the arguments that Moncloa has already deployed until now, Sánchez has made a distinction between what he considers individual behaviors of people who had been of his utmost confidence and the actions of his executive. "I never knew nor would I have tolerated any of these practices," assured the Spanish president about the mask case, for which there is already a Supreme Court ruling against Ábalos to 24 years in prison, and the case of alleged irregular public works contracts for which Cerdán is also being investigated. Sánchez has not undermined the credibility of these investigations and has claimed that he already acted by expelling those investigated, renewing the socialist leadership, and promoting anti-corruption measures from the Spanish government — still pending full implementation—. The Spanish president has asked to separate these "flagrant and serious" cases from the rest.

For Sánchez, there are three categories of investigations around him that, in his opinion, are not comparable. The first, for which he "already apologized" a year ago, is the one related to "the corruption of people who took advantage of their weight within the PSOE and the government to earn money." In a second tier, Sánchez has placed the investigation against the former Spanish president "on which no one can draw conclusions yet." "The presumption of innocence supports it," he stressed. In a third category, the head of the executive has placed the cases against his wife, Begoña Gómez, and his brother, David Sánchez, which he has described as "a series of coordinated actions that seek to weaken the executive's action through personal attacks." The Spanish president has predicted that in the coming months the trickle of information against his inner circle will continue, but he has denied that it is a symptom of "political degradation." "What we will witness in the coming months is the persecution and purge of the right," he stressed.

Despite this, Sánchez has assured that he has no intention of throwing in the towel and maintains that he wants to continue governing, no matter what. "We are very calm and sure of what we have done," he insisted.