It has been considered finished many times. He has been risking his political career for 10 years with all or nothing and always winning against the odds. Now, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (Madrid, 1972), the most important political leader of the last decade in Spain, decided to launch a new order by proposing a five-day reflection in which he questioned “if he deserved to continue” at the head of the Government after the “harassment campaign” against his wife, Begoña Gómez. When everything pointed to his resignation, Sánchez surprised again: “I have decided to continue.”
These are the most important stages of a political career lived on the wire.
2014 | The rise to the leadership of the PSOE
Sánchez did not seem to have any chance of leading the PSOE. His career was short. Next to Oscar Lopez y Antonio Hernandohad grown up in the shadow of Jose Blanco in the party and had been a deputy twice on the rebound. After the resignation of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcabaeverything seemed designed so that Susana Diaz take over, but he did not dare and supported Sánchez against Eduardo Madina. He won outright and the barons believed they had found a moldable leader.
The three candidates for general secretary of the PSOE in 2014. / EPC
2015 | The first elections
Sánchez made it clear from the first moment that I was not going to allow guardianships. The barons began to question his authority almost from the beginning and the results at the polls were bad. First, in the general elections of December 2015, he obtained 90 deputies. Even so, the 123 seats of the PP were far from the absolute majority and Mariano Rajoy He handed over the baton to try to form a Government.
2016 | Pact with Rivera
Sánchez reached an agreement with Citizenssomething that would now seem incredible, but not with Podemos, from whom he demanded free abstention. Pablo Iglesias He chose to block the investiture and the elections had to be repeated.
Sánchez with the then leader of Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera. / Agencies
The electoral repetition and “no means no”
The result was worse. Sánchez further undermined the electoral soil of the PSOE, until the 85 deputieswith the PP rising to 136. He himself privately acknowledged to several senior party officials that the only way out was a abstention to let Rajoy governbut he changed his strategy when he saw that the territorial leaders left him alone to eat the toad and then relieve him as soon as possible. “No means no!”he insisted in each act, leading Spain to a third general.
The first fall
On October 1, 2016, the PSOE held the most traumatic federal committee in its entire history. With defenders and detractors of Sánchez insulting and pushing each other in the street and after 11 hours of discussions behind closed doors that included screams, tears and an attempt to vote at the ballot box without census or guarantees promoted by his supporters, the leader gave upannounced his resignation and left the seat before the PSOE consummated its abstention with Rajoy.
2017 | The Renaissance
When he saw how a large part of his team disowned him and switched to the candidacy of Patxi Lopez, decided to play once again and run in the primaries. And there Sánchez mutated again, now in martyr of the left. From stating that he would not agree with the “populism that wants to turn Spain into Venezuela”, he went on to defend going hand in hand with Podemos. He charged at him Ibex-35 and argued that Catalonia is “a nation”. With the majority of territorial apparatuses and media against it, fueled by the wave of rage in the PSOE bases at the decision to let the PP govern, Sánchez devastated (this time yes) Susana Diaz.
The 3 candidates for the PSOE primaries in 2027. / EPC
2018 | The arrival to power
Four days before winning the primaries, in an interview with EL PERIÓDICO he said: “The PSOE will govern soon, with a motion of censure or with elections.” The prediction came true a year later. The PSOE returned to govern thanks to a motion of censure motivated by the ruling of the ‘Gürtel case’. Again, few trusted. Not even its hard core. But little by little the support began to strengthen and almost all of the opposition, except Ciudadanos, joined the initiative that made Sánchez president.
Family photo of the first Pedro Sánchez Government. / AGENCIES
2019 | The hug with Iglesias
Sánchez governed alone until he could not approve the 2019 Budgets and called elections. He won them with 123 deputies, but rejected the condition of incorporating We can to the Government because “he would not sleep peacefully” if he had ministers from the purple party. Two months later, after winning again in the electoral repetition but with fewer seats, Sánchez accepted the coalition in less than 48 hours with Pablo Iglesiaswho became vice president of the Government.
Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias. / AGENCIES
2019 | The pandemic
The legislature was dizzying, marked as soon as it began by covid pandemic, which forced the entire country to be confined, and the war in Ukraine. Important were approved social advances (from the equalization of paternity and maternity leave to the revaluation of pensions, through labor reform), there was economic growth, employment increased and inflation was controlled.
2023 | The express elections
Despite the government’s work, the recovery of the PP and the rise of Vox led the PSOE to lose almost all of their territorial power in the regional and municipal elections of 2023. He responded to the coup in less than 24 hours with an order: general elections in July. With that epic of the primaries and presenting himself as a candidate who never throws in the towel, no matter how amortized he may seem, he asked the electorate to choose between him Yolanda Diaz and the “ultraconservative wave.” And she got her way again.
The legislature was dizzying, marked as soon as it began by covid pandemic, which forced the entire country to be confined, and the war in Ukraine. Important were approved social advances (from the equalization of paternity and maternity leave to the revaluation of pensions, through labor reform), there was economic growth, employment increased and inflation was controlled.
The pact with Puigdemont
He lost the elections, but the PP was so far from the absolute majority and Vox fell so much that only Sánchez had real options to govern. To do this, he executed the umpteenth pirouette of his political career. Six years after having supported 155 in Catalonia and having said that he “would bring back Carles Puigdemont to be tried in Spain, Sánchez’s PSOE took a photo with the former president in Brussels to symbolize the granting of the ‘due process’ amnesty law. Already in June 2021, he had pardoned them taken from 1-O for those who had defended, when he was already president, that they serve their full sentences.
2024 | Continue despite the “harassment”
With the support of the entire left, the nationalists and the independentists, Sánchez remained in the Moncloa despite having placed second. The right did not forgive him and he rushed forward. The corruption plot with the masks and the investigation of his wife, Begoña Gómez, put the Government on the ropes and, for the first time, hinted that he could break the leader who until now has always been rebuilt. Nothing could be further from reality, after five days of reflection that kept the country in suspense, Sánchez has decided to continue leading the Government and has announced that he will implement policies of “democratic regeneration.”
By Jose Rico y Juan Ruiz Sierra
Infographics: Álex R. Fischer
Coordination: Rafa Julve
