Pedro Sánchez dedicated a large part of his speech yesterday before the PSOE leadership to arming his own to go on the offensive, amid enormous political and judicial pressure against the Government and the party for various open cases. In the closed-door meeting of the federal executive, Sánchez emphasized the PSOE’s “total cooperation” with the justice system in contrast to the response with which, as he recalled, Mariano Rajoy received the investigation of the Gürtel case —“it is a plot against the PP,” stated the former popular president— and he stopped to explain “the different speeds” of some of the proceedings that have once again cornered the socialists compared to other cases from Génova, according to sources present consulted by EL PAÍS. The secretary general of the PSOE cited as an example the dismissal of Begoña Gómez’s complaint against the ultra activist Vito Quiles for harassment.
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Sánchez shared with the socialist leadership his surprise at the decision “not to take a statement” from his wife. The events took place on April 29 in a restaurant in the Madrid town of Las Rozas. Gómez filed a complaint with the police that same day for an alleged assault. Less than a month later, on May 21, a judge from Majadahonda, Sergio Burguillo, dismissed the complaint. “No facts with criminal relevance could be proven,” the magistrate wrote in his ruling after viewing the images from the venue “that have been gathered so far.” Sánchez’s wife decided to appeal the decision, according to sources close to her.
Various officials of the federal leadership agree that the president highlighted the “speed” of the different cases, which “draws attention,” according to members of the executive. Precisely this Monday, Gómez’s defense accused Judge Juan Carlos Peinado of acting with “a cruising speed absolutely incompatible” with the “guarantees of criminal process in a Democratic State.” Sánchez’s partner is summoned to appear on June 9 at a “preliminary hearing” in which the appropriateness of opening the oral trial will be addressed.
The argument was later developed at a press conference by the spokesperson of the socialist executive, Montse Mínguez, who stated that there was “a double standard” of justice which included the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. “What do citizens see? That Begoña Gómez has two UCO reports and we have been waiting for the one from [Isabel Díaz] Ayuso’s boyfriend for a year,” the spokesperson denounced. Alberto González Amador, partner of the president of the Community of Madrid, is awaiting trial for an alleged tax fraud of 350,910 euros in a process opened in 2022.
“Zapatero is given 15 days to testify, and [Cristóbal] Montoro has been indicted for a year and still hasn’t testified. We have a trial for the president’s brother and an identical case with Moreno Bonilla’s sister with no consequences. Very fast UCO reports for anything socialist and others we are still waiting for,” were other examples given by Mínguez.
According to the sources consulted, Sánchez made no explicit reference to judges or investigators of the processes that the PSOE has open in the first executive meeting after the indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for influence peddling and the revelation of the alleged plot devised by Cerdán aimed at discrediting judicial cases open against the PSOE. Minister Óscar Puente denounced last week a conspiracy to overthrow the Government with “undemocratic methods.”
The PSOE federal executive, which was awaiting the lifting of the secrecy of the last case involving Santos Cerdán and Leire Díez and for which the socialist manager, Ana María Fuentes, has been indicted, coincided with a new day of the trial against David Sánchez. The first witnesses deflated one of the indications put forward by the accusations against the brother of the Prime Minister, prosecuted for allegedly being given a job at the Badajoz Provincial Council.
As he did at the closing of the Congress of the Socialist Youth, Sánchez acknowledged with his executive that “mistakes have been made,” but stressed that “facts are one thing and opinions another” and recalled that the PP “is the only party convicted of corruption,” according to attendees at the meeting in Ferraz. The president, whom the sources consulted saw as encouraged and determined to complete the legislature, did not speak about the concern among mayors and territorial leaders of his party, supporters of trying to avoid the punishment vote against the Government by advancing the general elections. The legislature is also worn out for partners such as the PNV, Junts, and Podemos, although they reject supporting a PP motion of no confidence.
In this situation, Sánchez encouraged his executive to do “pedagogy” and to step more into the territory with two missions: to explain and claim the government’s action and to convey their encouragement to the PSOE federations. While the membership is outraged by a succession of judicial milestones they do not believe to be coincidental, the party cadres are torn between mistrust of certain judicial decisions and the precedents of Cerdán and Ábalos, who is awaiting the sentence for the mask case.
The PSOE deputy secretary general and candidate in the Andalusian elections, María Jesús Montero, returned to a PSOE executive meeting for the first time since mid-March asking to be “didactic” about the Government’s work. The last time Montero spoke in public was on the night of May 17, when she signed the worst result for the socialists in Andalusia. She has had no public agenda for two weeks.
Other executive leaders focused on the importance of the coalition agreements between PP and Vox, following their fall in Castilla y León, which the PSOE hopes to exploit to try to mobilize its electorate as it did in the 2023 legislative elections. One of the interventions that caused the most interest was that of Aránzazu Figueroa, newly elected secretary general of the Socialist Youth. The first woman to lead the youth organization explicitly expressed her support for the secretary of Organization, Rebeca Torró, against the attacks on her management from Zapatero’s bombs and the 16-hour entry of the UCO into Ferraz she has received in recent days.
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