Series of allegations facing those around the PM have hit the reputation of the socialist-led minority government
P
edro Sánchez could be forgiven for remembering the autumn of 2018 with a deep and nostalgic sigh. Back then, having been in office for just six months, Spain’s socialist prime minister could afford to mock his opponents’ frequently hyperbolic attempts to depict him and his administration as an existential threat to the country.
“I know you think I’m a dangerous, extreme leftwinger who’s trying to break Spain apart,” he told the senate at the end of October that year. “I know that everything I do, and everything my government does, is illegal, immoral and even fattening.”
Almost seven years on, that barb hasn’t aged well. The EU’s last centre-left leader is fighting the most crucial battle of his political life. The events of the past seven days – and, indeed the past year – have battered the reputation of Spain’s socialist-led minority government and of the man who came to power as a self-declared scourge of corruption.
