Why is this Pedro Sánchez's most serious crisis so far?

BarcelonaPedro Sánchez has a year and a half left in his term, but with each passing week, the legal net tightens around him. Last May, the Spanish president announced he was taking five days off to reflect, deeming the judicial "harassment" of his wife, Begoña Gómez, unacceptable. Sánchez decided to continue with his objective of carrying out a "long-overdue regeneration of democracy" and putting an end to the "politics of mudslinging." More than a year later, the legal cases affecting the Spanish government and the PSOE have not ceased. Sánchez has seen the judiciary sentence the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, to two years of disqualification from public office in the case of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's boyfriend, and his former associate also fell from grace. Is Sánchez facing the worst situation since being re-elected in 2023? In recent days, the Spanish president's already precarious situation has been compounded by internal complaints of alleged harassment from several PSOE officials. The pressure, therefore, not only comes from outside and from the judiciary, but now also from within the party.

In June, when the audios implicating Cerdán in the Ábalos case were made public, Pedro Sánchez reshuffled the party to replace the then-organizational secretary and decided to create a reinforced team of four members, including Paco Salazar. However, his name was never put to a vote in the Socialist Party's executive committee because, on the same day, a sexual harassment complaint was made public against the former Secretary General for Institutional Coordination in the Spanish Prime Minister's office. In other words, Sánchez was trying to stem the most serious crisis to date with a trusted appointee whose "inappropriate behavior" was being questioned internally. His inner circle, as had happened with Cerdán and also with former minister José Luis Ábalos, had once again failed him. Last week, six months later, the Spanish government dismissed Antonio Hernández, the former director of the political coordination department in the Prime Minister's office, for turning a blind eye to the Salazar case after receiving several complaints from female employees at the Moncloa Palace against Salazar for alleged sexual harassment. The PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) also opened an internal investigation. In fact, the party had to apologize in recent weeks for its delayed and inadequate handling of the matter. Sánchez himself apologized, but has nevertheless tried to emphasize that they acted in all cases. The trickle of sexual harassment complaints

The Salazar case appears to have opened the floodgates for more harassment allegations against several PSOE officials. Last week, the mayor of Belalcázar (Córdoba), Francisco Luis Fernández, resigned; the president of the Lugo Provincial Council, José Tomé Roca, and the Galician Socialists' equality secretary, Silvia Fraga, also resigned. Fraga criticized the party's handling of the latter case. Last Friday, it was also made public that the party had received two complaints against the number two Socialist in the province of Valencia and mayor of Almussafes, Toni González, who requested his suspension from party membership and resigned from all his party positions, except for the mayoralty. The party has also opened an internal investigation against the former secretary general of the PSOE in Torremolinos (Málaga), Antonio Navarro.

In other words, to the legal cases that have surrounded Sánchez in recent months, from the Ábalos/Koldo/Cerdán case to the Leire case—now with a new branch implicating SEPI—and the case affecting his wife, has been added friendly fire from within his own party. This is the main difference from the situation Sánchez faced last spring, when he took five days to reflect and attacked the judiciary, the right wing, and the far right for creating an unbearable climate against the Spanish government; and also from last June, when the Cerdán case seemed to be the final blow for the executive branch. However, Sánchez maintains his intention to finish his term, although within the government there are those who quietly admit that, without being able to advance the legislative agenda and with the judiciary against him, it is very difficult.