Sánchez counterattacks: more presence on TV and international agenda to overcome the Ceuta crisis

MadridAll polls point to a PP victory in the upcoming elections –except for the CIS one–, but Pedro Sánchez does not consider it lost and will fight the battle for the left on a national scale and also on a global level. In Moncloa, they are convinced that the re-edition of the progressive coalition goes beyond Spain and stands in contrast to the far-right wave that is gaining ground all over Europe. That is why he is doing two things: on one hand, intensifying Pedro Sánchez's media presence; and on the other, recovering the international agenda, taking advantage of his visit next week to the United Nations General Assembly to hold a joint event with the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. A staging of the progressive alliance against Donald Trump.

In other words, after days of reacting on the back foot following the Ceuta crisis, Pedro Sánchez is counterattacking. One only needs to review his media agenda for this month of September: he started the political year on the leading audience program Hoy por hoy, on Ser –to reappear after a summer with a low public profile and defend his management regarding Ceuta– and continued last week on Mañaneros,on TVE, where he engaged in pedagogy about the decisions made by the executive, which were under scrutiny due to the chronic nature of the migrant situation in the autonomous city. This Monday night he took a step further and showed his most informal side on El Intermedio, on La Sexta. He entered the program like a rock star and dodged all the questions in a tone between seriousness and irony. "PP and Vox want to use the Ceuta crisis to wear down the government of Spain," he declared, accusing the opposition of not wanting to solve the problem but rather to entrench it.

The interview also covered the clash between the Spanish government and the judiciary, especially in the cases affecting his wife, Begoña Gómez, and his brother, David Sánchez. "Judge Peinado has done great harm to justice and will not be remembered as an impartial judge," he stated, and returned, despite everything, to place the end of his term in 2027, until "exhausting" the legislature. "The progressive forces will win again," he summarized.

The meeting with Mamdani and Macron

In parallel to the media presence, the Moncloa also communicated this Monday two relevant international agenda appointments: the event with Mamdani and the official visit of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting with the mayor of New York will be on September 23rd at a conference titled Building an economy for the majority, at the official residence of Mamdani and organized by the Global Progress Foundation. For the Moncloa, it is an important meeting because it aligns with the event that the PSOE already organized in Barcelona to join forces with other progressive forces from all continents, and even more so considering that Sánchez has sought to position himself as the nemesis of Trump. In this final stretch of the term, the PSOE wants to emphasize more social issues –preparing state budgets with high public investment–, just as Mamdani is doing, with the emphasis he places in his speech on the material issues that affect the working and middle classes to face Trump's discourse.

Also to be read in the same vein, of global battle, is the article that this Monday is published in El País by the Vice President and head of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, together with his Brazilian counterpart, Dario Durigan, on progressive economic policy. The government of Lula da Silva is one of the great allies of Sánchez on the other side of the Atlantic.

Socialist sources ask to broaden the focus and see what is happening in Europe and Latin America before going to vote: the advance of the far right in a good part of European governments – such as the recent victory in Saxony-Anhalt – and also the shift to the right in countries like Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile or the Ecuador of Daniel Noboa. For this reason, they have also followed with attention the heart-stopping count in Sweden in which the left has prevailed: "Sweden has seen its rights cut and has said never again. This is also a warning to Spanish compatriots. Whoever tries the right and the far right does not want to try it again", has stated the PSOE spokesperson, Montse Mínguez, in this Monday's press conference, in which she celebrated the recovery of the left and the retreat of the ultras who until now influenced the conservative government.

On the other hand, the Spanish government has also officially announced an official visit by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on September 29 and 30. It will be at the highest level and takes place at a moment of weakness for both presidents: they are two heavyweights of the European Union who are facing, at the end of their mandate, a growth of the right and the far right. Furthermore, it coincides with the signing of the friendship treaty between both countries, pending ratification due to the veto of the PP, which has taken it to the Constitutional Court because it considers that it does not fit into the Magna Carta: it is suspicious of the possibility that a minister of the French government could participate in the meeting of the council of ministers of Spain – and vice versa.