Sánchez keeps pace with Trump and Netanyahu amidst the political storm.

He may be in trouble, but "far from being depressed," warns a Socialist minister about Pedro Sánchez. And this, in his opinion, has been demonstrated by this intense week of international affairs, despite the fact that the alleged corruption scandal that is looming over the government and the PSOE has not dissipated, but rather the opposite.

The NATO summit was a "perfect fit" for Sánchez's interests, according to the Socialists' analysis. Israel also served as a "counterpoint." Alberto Núñez Feijóo was, in their opinion, left out of position. And, as a final touch, the Constitutional Court upheld the amnesty, while Felipe González, with his criticism, "continued to garner us more votes," they conclude.

The Prime Minister had been mounting an increasing offensive against Donald Trump's ideological agenda and Benjamin Netanyahu's war strategy. This strategy was abruptly halted a couple of weeks ago when the alleged corruption scandal erupted involving Santos Cerdán, the former PSOE organization secretary. Cerdán was implicated by the UCO (Union of the Workers' Union) in a scheme to bribe public works contracts with former minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor, Koldo García.

Sánchez was knocked out, according to his own supporters, and in an extremely fragile situation, with the PSOE in shock and his parliamentary partners and allies distancing themselves, while the PP and Vox redoubled their political siege to deliver the final blow to the legislature.

Moncloa and Ferraz admit the uncertainty of continuing "blindly" in the face of the possible scale of the corruption scandal, with no assurance that it won't reach more members of the PSOE or even the Executive, given a judicial agenda beyond their control.

The head of the Executive reaffirms his strategy to try to avoid the alleged corruption scandals.

But they also highlight that Sánchez regained his composure this past week, thanks to an international agenda—including the NATO summit in The Hague and the European Council in Brussels—in which he once again shifted the focus to Trump and Netanyahu.

A strategy the president will further emphasize next week, as host of the UN conference in Seville on development financing. The internal storm, however, continues unabated: next Monday, Cerdán will testify before the Supreme Court; and next Saturday, Sánchez will lead the meeting of the PSOE's federal committee, which will appoint a replacement as organizational secretary and where he is expected to announce new initiatives to try to calm the anxiety that keeps the party on edge.

Sánchez's forceful stances on Trump and Netanyahu, meanwhile, have the effect of giving him back political initiative in the midst of the storm, uniting the Socialist ranks, enjoying the support of the parliamentary majority for the investiture, and, according to those in Moncloa and Ferraz, unsettling Feijóo and putting him in an awkward position vis-à-vis Vox and Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

At their final press conference in Brussels on Thursday night, the Socialists thus appreciated an energetic Sánchez, very different from the almost emaciated one they saw just two weeks ago when he appeared at Ferraz after dismissing Cerdán.

First, Sánchez remained firm in his confrontation with Trump, despite the US president's threat of trade retaliation against Spain for its refusal to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. "Being pro-European and pro-Atlantic doesn't mean blindly following the example others in our country are proposing," he argued, referring to Feijóo. "2.1% is more than enough," he concluded.

Last Monday, Sánchez also urged people not to succumb to "the siren calls of wars that never bring anything good," after Trump bombed Iran. And on Thursday, he reiterated his rejection of the Iranian regime's possession of nuclear weapons, "but the use of force as the way to prevent this should not be tolerated." "Military action never brings peace," he warned.

And as for Netanyahu, while diplomatic tensions persist, Sánchez insisted on denouncing the "open-air hell" in Gaza, which has already claimed more than 55,000 Palestinian lives, and advocated—so far unsuccessfully, but without giving up—for the EU to break its association agreement with Israel. "Enough is enough!" he demanded of the Hebrew leader.

Trump insists that Spain will reach 5%

US President Donald Trump declared himself absolutely convinced yesterday that Spain will comply with its 5% spending commitment to NATO. "Spain hasn't complied, but it will. In fact, it's guaranteed to. It was the only country that, in some way, tried to avoid putting up the money," the US president stated at a press conference.