Sánchez throws his second "no is no"

"You're cruel, even to your own people." Alberto Núñez Feijóo was also struck by Pedro Sánchez's reference to corruption during Felipe González's final term in power. This allusion could be interpreted as mere revenge for the former president's recent criticisms, who has even said he won't vote for the PSOE if Sánchez remains in power, but it may be something more.

Sánchez drew a dotted line yesterday. He defended Zapatero's presidency and declared that both had led the two cleanest governments in democracy. Immediately, González's government was left out. He acknowledged his achievements and ability to transform the country during his years in power, but added that "he wasn't perfect in terms of corruption." This wasn't a passing allusion, but rather a reciprocal mention of some of the scandals that led to González's downfall, such as the Roldán case or that of the governor of the Bank of Spain. That PSOE congress of October 2021, the one in which the current leader embraced Felipe González and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (and Adriana Lastra, later ousted by Santos Cerdán) (still wearing masks), is buried. Sánchez is trying to mark the next step on the dotted line...

Felipe González has been questioning the current Socialist leader's management for some time now . He has done so both ironically ("I've agreed with Pedro Sánchez many more times than Pedro Sánchez has with himself: but I just don't have time to adapt to his changes") and more profoundly (for example, against the amnesty law, which he considers an "act of political corruption," a "true outrage against the rules of the game, against the rule of law"). That all this pains Sánchez was evident at the last federal committee meeting, when he hinted about his future: "I will be a member who will stand by my secretary general." But this isn't just a question of personal affinities, but of strategic disagreement within the PSOE. Why?

Feijóo is confident that the election result will allow him to govern without including Vox in the government. To achieve the investiture, given that an absolute majority seems unlikely, he could turn to Santiago Abascal, but he could also do so with the PSOE if that party enters an internal crisis as a result of the loss of power and Sánchez's withdrawal. The PP is amplifying the protests of critical socialists to foster a movement in this direction.

The traumatic 2016 federal committee meeting, where he resigned two and a half years after taking the reins of the party under pressure from his own party, is etched in memory in Sánchez's turbulent political life. He insisted on "no means no," that is, on rejecting the Prime Ministership of Mariano Rajoy with the PSOE's abstention. The internal bombshell was triggered by statements by González, who said he felt "deceived" by Sánchez because he had assured him he would abstain.

When Sánchez regained control of the party, the ups and downs over his alliances followed, including nightmares about the possibility of governing with Pablo Iglesias or the agreement signed with Ciudadanos. But once he opted for a coalition government with Unidas Podemos and, even more so, for the agreements with ERC, Sánchez forged alliances with the left and with nationalists and independentists, defining a socialist party that declares itself progressive and plurinational. And he has done so with the help of Zapatero.

As this strategy has become more established ("making a virtue out of necessity"), the gap with what González represents has widened. It's not a question of whether the critics are more or less numerous, but whether the PSOE can return to its previous path when Sánchez is no longer at the helm. In a way, the president, with his amendment to González, sent a message to his party yesterday: "no means no."

Congress experienced a session of personal insults and a clear emergence of Trumpism.

This was one of the most striking passages from the Congressional plenary session on corruption, although the debate was so tense that it went almost unnoticed. But the session yielded other conclusions. We highlight three: red lines were crossed in personal disqualifications, Sánchez's allies continue to support him (for now), and Vox enthusiastically embraces Trumpism and won't make things easy for the PP.

Red lines

It seemed we'd seen it all in the chamber, but yesterday accusations were launched that went far beyond the usual . Sánchez made two speeches. In the first, he apologized and presented a fairly comprehensive anti-corruption plan. In the second, he relentlessly attacked the PP's corruption in its recent history. An exhaustive review in which the president gloated relentlessly. He referred several times to the photo of Feijóo when he was president of Galicia with drug trafficker Marcial Dorado. During the election campaign of July 23, 2023, Yolanda Díaz was the first to bring up that image. The PSOE hesitated. She invited Teresa Ribera to point it out, and, already in the final stretch of the campaign, Sánchez delved fully into the thorny issue. Yesterday, the president also recalled the cases involving Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner and emphasized that the PP (People's Party) has proposed at its congress the right of taxpayers to make a mistake before the Treasury, which he described as a "self-amnesty" for the Madrid president's boyfriend.

But Feijóo's response also crossed red lines—as PNV spokesperson Maribel Vaquero reproached him for—as he repeatedly insisted on the president's wife and brother, practically convicting them of influence peddling, to the point of snapping at the president: "But who do you live with? What brothels have you lived in?" This last phrase refers to news reports that appeared in right-wing digital media claiming that Begoña Gómez's father shared a business with his brother, the owner of two gay bars in Madrid.

Nothing more could be said.

Sánchez's allies maintain their (conditional) support

The plenary session on corruption acted as a vote of confidence without a vote. Had a vote taken, doubts about the outcome would have come from Podemos, the party that now distances itself the most from all those that supported Sánchez's investiture.

The two interventions spearheading the current government's continuation were those of Yolanda Díaz and Gabriel Rufián . They weren't just blank checks, but they highlighted that for Sumar and ERC, it is essential that Sánchez's administration upskill and focus on the social agenda and fulfill its commitments to the Republicans, especially the special funding for Catalonia.

Junts embraced the equidistance between the PP and the PSOE, but didn't question Sánchez's continuity for the time being. And the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) was harsh in its initial speech to the president, but later also went all out against Feijóo. The gap between the PP and the PNV is currently enormous.

In short, all the allies maintain their support for Sánchez as long as the police and judicial investigations do not provide significant new developments that make continuing alongside the Socialist president unacceptable. And, of course, none of them showed any affinity toward Feijóo's PP.

Vox leaves Congress

The Popular Party (PP) announced this weekend that they will not govern in coalition with Vox. Feijóo expressed this as a wish last Sunday, and on Monday, people close to him assured journalists that it was a firm commitment and that he was even willing to hold a repeat election rather than include the far right in his government. Yesterday, Isabel Díaz Ayuso spoke out against that option. However, since Feijóo has tried to distance himself from Vox, Santiago Abascal's party has further radicalized its statements. They advocated deporting millions of immigrants, including second-generation immigrants, and yesterday they were absent from the plenary session (they were only there to listen to Abascal's speech).

Vox's absence from the chamber isn't just another performance. They didn't leave to avoid hearing Sánchez, as they had done on other occasions. They didn't want to hear the others' speeches either. It's yet another example of how Trumpism works, sending a populist message to voters that they're not part of that self-absorbed world of politicians that provokes so much boredom, but that they actually stand with the people on the street. The more radical Vox becomes, the more difficult it will make it for Feijóo to prevent a leftist mobilization. In any case, it's still ironic that those who left yesterday's Congress can benefit from what happened yesterday.