Spain is Unable to Get Rid of Corruption
The 2023 Spanish election was won by the opposition conservatives, but they just failed to get a parliamentary majority together. Voters wanted less corruption but it seems they got more.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez demonstrates, once more, that he is unable to steer his Socialist Party (PSOE) away from corruption and scandals. Though not accused of hands-on involvement himself, Sánchez has seen several major scandals, at the minimum, during his three recent periods in government. This includes his wife gaining advantages with her position at Madrid University, an obscure visit by a Venezuelan operative with a bag of gold bars, and a million-euro fraud with Covid face masks by his longtime confidant and former minister Jose Luis Ábalos, including allegations of illegal commissions, money laundering and misuse of EU funds that the EU Commission initiated court proceedings about. To mention but a few.
More scandals and accusations continue to emerge, this time a year-long illegal granting of government contracts — so far the most serious allegation — and serious accusations of harassment of female employees at the party headquarters.
Pedro Sánchez swears in his position as Prime Minister to the King. | @House of His Majesty the King. Zarzuela Palace, Madrid - 17.11.2023
Friday, this resulted in Sánchez’s efforts to reset PSOE and start from a clean slate ending almost before he had started with a national committee meeting to clean up and reorganize, because the online newspaper elDiario published allegations from a number of female employees of the PSOE of sexual harassment by Francisco Salazar, a high level official in the party organization.
A man who had Pedro Sánchez's utmost confidence since the 2017 primaries, he was part of the political clique that controlled the party alongside José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán. This Saturday, he resigned from his positions at Ferraz and the Moncloa following accusations from women about his "inappropriate behavior."
— Several women from the PSOE party accuse Paco Salazar of “inappropriate behavior” when he was their boss.
The accusations prompted Salazar to announce, yesterday, that he was stepping down from that post and from his recently appointed to role as a deputy in the secretariat of PSOE.
The other two persons mentioned in the online newspaper happens to be also removed and/or indicted for corruption in the wake of earlier scandals. Ábalos in the above mentioned fraud case involving face masks and EU funds. Cerdán last month in the most serious case, so far, about illegal granting of government contracts.
Spanish PM’s former aide detained without bail by Supreme Court judge
The reason why Sánchez urgently needed at ‘reset’ announced by the national committee was the arrest of a top former colleague and politician Santos Cerdán by an investigative judge of the Spanish Supreme Court, as reported by the Guardian:
A former senior official in Spain’s ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) has been remanded in custody by a supreme court judge investigating corruption allegations that have put the country’s centre-left government under unprecedented pressure.
Santos Cerdán, who served as the PSOE’s organisational secretary and was the right-hand man of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, quit earlier this month after a judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts.
Cerdán’s alleged criminal activities, which have become the latest in a slew of corruption allegations against Sánchez’s circle, led the prime minister to demand his resignation and to apologise to voters, but he dismissed calls for a snap general election.
The case involving Cerdán is the latest and arguably the most serious in a series of scandals that forced Sánchez to issue public apologies and deflect calls from his political opponents for a snap election. Cerdán resigned from office earlier this month but denies the allegations. The judge officially accuses him of improperly awarding government contracts, bribery, influence peddling and criminal association. If found guilty, it is difficult to imagine that others in the government and in the PSOE are not involved. It is almost certain that the Prime Minister would have to resign and likely also be charged, if his immunity is lifted.
Implications of having a compromised head of government
Calls for a fresh election are also beginning to bubble up within some sections of the socialist party. Emiliano García-Page, the PSOE president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, said the time had come to let parliament and the people have their say.
The conservative Popular Party won the last elections in 2023, but performed worse than predicted by polling and failed to gain the absolute majority needed to form a government. Even though PSOE finished second, they and their allied parties celebrated the outcome as a victory since they mustered slightly more seats than the PP and the far-right.
Seen from an EU perspective, Spain is not just a slightly embarrassing component of daily politics, it is also disturbing the coherence of the Union in the current crucial moment for the Union and for Europe. The recent revolt of Spain against 5% defense spending as decided in NATO took some effort to quiet down. Sánchez was obviously playing to his domestic base of pacifists rather than attempting to steer his country into mainstream with important decisions for the future of both EU and Spain. For that reason, the rest of the EU countries wish for a Spanish government with more order in its own business and surplus political capital to engage in serious international collaboration.
Spain is caught in a political maze with few other ways out than calling new elections. Because of the polarized and fractioned electoral environment, elections may not necessarily solve the problem, however. A clear signal from EU that corrupt politicians are not tolerated would be helpful in this situation, but is not seen on the horizon. Since Sánchez is officially part of the Social Democratic family, some strong admonitions from other heads of governments of the same political orientation might also help, but that is not seen coming, either. Sánchez will consider holding a confidence vote in parliament. If that fails, he doesn’t rule out calling new elections.
