In Spain, “corruption hits the Socialist Party again”

Pedro Sánchez has occupied the Moncloa Palace, the official residence of the Spanish Prime Minister, in Madrid, for seven years. During this time, he has experienced “very serious crises,” reports the newspaper El País , but none seem comparable to the one that “knocked him out” on Thursday, June 12.

Late in the afternoon, the Madrid leader appeared "with a funeral face" at the headquarters of his party, the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), "to ask for forgiveness - eight times - for having trusted his Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán," the newspaper reports in its pages .

Earlier in the day, the party's number 3 was implicated in an alleged corruption scandal that has plagued the government for months. He resigned a few hours later, at Sánchez's request. The affair made headlines in all the newspapers, including El País, this Friday, June 13.

For the daily newspaper close to the socialists, it is "a scandal of colossal proportions", which the Prime Minister has painfully tried to mitigate by promising "an external audit of the PSOE's accounts to verify irregularities and changes within the federal committee [of the party]".

According to a police report, Cerdán is suspected of being an alleged "accomplice" in a bribery case involving former Socialist minister José Luis Ábalos and his former right-hand man, Koldo García. This is the latest in a wide-ranging investigation that has been underway for several months into alleged corruption related to the purchase of health equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Until Thursday, the head of government expressed confidence in Cerdán's integrity. During his press conference, Sánchez "assured that he only learned of the report after its publication" and that he "collapsed" upon discovering it, reports El País.

The Socialists are facing "a crisis that [they] have unnecessarily amplified by ignoring suspicions until this Thursday, which reveals a worrying lack of knowledge about the activities of some of their most important executives," El País laments.

As "corruption strikes again," Sánchez is under more pressure than ever. El País recalls that the Madrilenian seized power in 2018 "with the promise of a renaissance linked to the fight against corruption," which had precipitated the fall of his predecessor, the conservative Mariano Rajoy.

Today, the Prime Minister is determined to complete his term, which will end in 2027. But his party will have to provide "precise explanations" about its activities in order to rebuild trust with its presidential partners and the voters, warns El País. Otherwise, "it is very possible that the PSOE will end up paying the price at the ballot box."