Sánchez encourages progressives to vote against Feijóo and Abascal as “promoters” of this maneuver to influence the electoral result

Pedro Sánchez wants to turn around what apparently should be bad news for the Government, that is, the announcement in the middle of the final stretch of the campaign of the summons of his wife, Begoña Gómez, as being investigated for influence peddling. The President of the Government published a new letter to citizens this Wednesday afternoon, but in a very different tone from the previous one, on April 24. He now doesn’t take five days of reflection to decide if he resigns. On the contrary, he assures that his decision to continue leading the Executive is “firmer than ever” and calls for a mobilization of progressives against what he sees as a maneuver by the opposition to influence the electoral result. “It’s all a big hoax. He has no doubt that they will not break me. And, given that they are trying to interfere in the electoral result of next June 9, I hope their promoters—Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal—find the response they deserve in the umas: condemnation and rejection of their bad tricks.” , says Sánchez’s text.

The president assures in the letter that he finds it “strange” that the judge has summoned his wife, Begoña Gómez, to testify on July 5, which occurred five days before the European elections. “Usually, the unwritten rule has been followed of not issuing resolutions that could affect the normal development of an electoral campaign and, therefore, the vote of the citizens,” asserts the leader of the Executive regarding the decision – known this morning – of the Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. The judge is the head of the Court of Instruction number 41 of Madrid and is investigating Gómez for alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption in business.

Sánchez says he feels obliged to make “a political reading” of the accusation, after which he assures that he and his wife are “absolutely calm” because it is “a crude montage promoted by the extreme right-wing associations that are demanding it.” As in his previous letter, in April, the president once again frames the demand as a “drift of a reactionary coalition led by Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal.” “What they did not achieve at the polls, they intend to achieve in a spurious manner,” states the leader of the Executive in a text disseminated on his social networks personally, without official letterhead and from his private account, not any of the official Government accounts.

Privately, several members of Sánchez’s Executive show their anger at the judge’s announcement and believe that he can only act this way out of political interest; They maintain that, from a procedural point of view, it makes no sense for him not to have waited to announce the summons at least until next Monday, when the elections will have already passed. In public, the Government is more cautious and avoids a direct clash between the executive branch and the judicial branch, but the spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has indirectly shown the Government’s indignation by transferring the “strangeness” with the judge’s actions, to the time that he showed absolute confidence that the case will come to “nothing.”

“We want to convey our strangeness and our tranquility,” Alegría began. “Strangeness at the chance of making this information known precisely this week and through the media,” she said in a serious tone, emphasizing the sarcasm in the word “chance.” “We know that there is nothing here, as the Civil Guard report said. What we have here is a campaign of the mud of the PP and Vox and far-right groups such as Clean Hands or Hazte Oír [promotores de sendas denuncias contra Begoña Gómez]. “This is the shameful opposition we have in this country,” Alegría concluded. When journalists insisted that he clarify whether the Government believes that the judge is prevaricating, Alegría has avoided going further, although maintaining a hard position against the judge’s actions: “This Government is perfectly aware of the separation of powers and respects power. judicial. But we know that this complaint is based on hoaxes from digital tabloids.”

Privately, several members of the Executive accuse the judge’s actions. They maintain that Peinado could have called Begoña Gómez to testify as a first measure. That would not have been strange, they say. But they believe that, once he decided not to do so and wait to gather evidence and question witnesses, there is no logic in him announcing his subpoena as investigated before having heard those witnesses. And even less so, these sources emphasize, when the Civil Guard report that he himself requested indicates that there is no indication of a crime in Begoña Gómez’s actions.

The big question is what political effect this news will have in the final stretch of the campaign. The socialists were very satisfied with the course of these two weeks, and even more so after Alberto Núñez Feijóo got into trouble on Monday by opening the door to a motion of censure (which would require the support of Junts) after the European elections. In fact, Alegría tried to exploit that error and assured that this “contortion” disqualifies the leader of the PP. But now the news of the campaign is different, it is the summons of Gómez, and the PP has already launched today to try to exploit it.

Several members of the Executive assert, however, that the judge’s decision in the middle of the campaign is “so crude” that, instead of mobilizing the right, it could activate the left-wing electorate, which was less mobilized, and thereby achieve a result. for the progressive bloc better than expected. In any case, the internal surveys that answer that question will reach the parties in the coming days, because the news has just become known and it is still difficult to see to what extent it can influence the electoral result on Sunday.

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