Zapatero will not return to the PSOE rallies
BarcelonaOn June 12, 2023, the PSOE began to leave behind the feeling of defeat. That day, an uninhibited José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero went on Cope to defend Pedro Sánchez's "spectacular" government, laughed at the PP's insinuations of fraud, and stated that he expected nothing more than the re-establishment of a PSOE-led government. Carlos Herrera told him that neither the results of the municipal and regional elections nor the polls predicted it to be a plausible scenario. Zapatero began the comeback.
This week we saw him responding to the judgeThe judicial summary contains many indications, but few unquestionable proofs of influence peddling, one of the most difficult crimes to prove. This week we saw him responding to the judge that he had nothing to do with the rescue of Plus Ultra—although he has admitted, it is true, that he mediated with Banco Santander for the company to receive it—and that, despite recommending that they hire his daughters, he never used them to create a shell company to launder his payments. The judge has responded by indicting them.
A moral reference falls
In the best-case scenario for him, the accusations will not be proven, but Zapatero's image has been so damaged that he will hardly be seen on a PSOE rally stage again. It is no longer just the so-called television news penalty — the parallel trial that takes place in the media while there is no sentence — but the airing of the businesses he conducted and the gifts he received by someone who, in the socialist imaginary — and beyond — seemed a moral reference. The hardest blow to his image has been dealt by the jewelry, which his entourage explained this week to RTVE came from a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2007. A version that would acquit him of the smuggling offense and deem the tax offense prescribed, but which would further aggravate the ethical deficit even in his presidential term.
Returning to June 12, 2023, Zapatero boasted about the PSOE's impeccable management, with no corruption cases in government. "With Pedro Sánchez there has been neither Kitchen, nor Gürtel, nor Bárcenas' papers. This is very important." Shortly after, the cases of Ábalos, Cerdán, Leire, Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez, and Zapatero would begin to emerge. The socialists assure that they are not "naive" and that it cannot be a coincidence that all investigations coincide in time, precisely when the right is moving to try to overthrow the government. With the exception of his wife, Pedro Sánchez has avoided the photo with everyone who appears in the judicial files, including his great supporter in the party.
The week's details
A seven-minute walk from the central Puerta del Sol you reach the most elitist club in the Spanish capital, the Nuevo Club Madrid, one of those clubs with a strict dress code and such restricted access that they only admit 500 members. At least one is either former president Mariano Rajoy or his Minister of Economy, Luis de Guindos, who were seen together this week on Cedaceros street.
When a Barça match coincides with a plenary session of Parliament, there are deputies who speed up the pace of the session to get to the stadium – President Benach, for example, was a regular–. With the World Cup, a similar situation has begun to be experienced in Congress: on Monday, in the Pact of Toledo commission, everyone made a single intervention and one deputy confessed that he was leaving to watch the red team on television.