29 Apr, 2024 @ 11:07
1 min read

Spain’s prime minister STAYS: Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will NOT quit after taking the weekend to ‘reflect’

Israel warns Spain and Ireland of ‘grave consequences’ after they agreed to recognise Palestine as a nation state  

PEDRO Sanchez has announced he will remain in his role as Spain’s prime minister.

The socialist PSOE leader revealed his decision during a press conference at 11am on Monday.

It came after the 52-year-old met with King Felipe IV at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid earlier this morning, to inform the head of state of his decision.

The PM had announced last week that he was pausing all public duties so that he could take the weekend to ‘reflect’ and consider his position.

READ IN ENGLISH: Pedro Sanchez’s speech announcing he will remain as PM in full

Spain set to finally have a government as Pedro Sanchez secures 179 votes ahead of investiture vote next week
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (Cordon Press image)

It followed what he described as a ‘political attack’ on his wife Begoña by ‘far-right forces’.

She had been accused of ‘peddling influence’ in a denuncia filed by the Manos Limpias organisation.

During a speech today, Sanchez said he and his family had suffered such attacks ‘for the past 10 years’, and that they know ‘they will not stop’.

He said: “My wife and I know that this campaign to discredit us will not stop, but we can confront it.”

He added that the massive support shown over the weekend had ‘influenced’ his decision.

Thousands of people had lined the streets of Madrid on Sunday to show their support for the PM.

Sanchez last week branded the accusations against his wife an attack from right and far right forces and said he no longer knew whether being the PM is ‘worth it’.

In his speech today, he said leading the government was ‘not worth it’ if ‘we allow deliberate fake news to direct the political debate, if we force the victims of these lies to prove their innocence, if we allow the role of women to be relegated to the domestic sphere once again, having to sacrifice their professional careers for the benefit of their husband.”

He branded the complaints against his wife as ‘baseless’, insisting that they were only filed as an attempt to ‘deligitimise’ his role as prime minister.

He wrote: “In short, it is an operation of harassment and demolition by land, sea and air, to try and weaken me politically and personally by attacking my wife.

“I’m not naive. I am aware that they are denouncing Begoña not because she has done something illegal, they know there is no case, but because she is my wife.

“As I am also fully aware that the attacks I suffer are not against me but rather against what I represent: a progressive political option, supported election after election by millions of Spaniards, based on economic progress, social justice and democratic regeneration.”

More to follow…

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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