The Spanish Prime Minister has been facing yet another party scandal since Friday night. The noose around him is now tightening dangerously, giving rise to scenarios of an early election. Will he last until 2027?
The pressure, which has long been exerted on the government of Pedro Sanchez, is now intensifying even more.
The Spanish Prime Minister has been facing another party scandal since Friday night, seeing the noose around him tighten dangerously, giving rise to scenarios of an early election.
Late Friday night, the (politically left-leaning) website elDiario brought to light the allegations of a woman who had worked in the ranks of Spain's ruling Socialist Workers' Party ( PSOE ). The complainant claims that she was sexually harassed by Francisco Talatár, who until a few hours ago was a high-ranking party official in the ruling party and held a position of coordinator in the prime minister's environment.
The Socialist Party announced that it would immediately launch an investigation into the case, but stressed that no formal complaints had been filed. Sanchez was due to speak at the party's headquarters in Madrid on Monday when the news broke. He spoke about an hour late and called on any woman who has been sexually harassed to report it to the party's relevant bodies, but did not mention Talathar by name.
In the wake of the allegations, Thalathar announced his resignation today.
Under other circumstances, this resignation might not have been, as an isolated incident, a big problem for Sanchez himself.
However, the scandals that have erupted recently around the PSOE and the minority government of Pedro Sánchez are numerous and, as it seems, they do not stop… multiplying as time goes by, thus stirring up scenarios of early elections.
Just a few weeks ago, MP Santos Cerdan, who was actually third in the hierarchy of the ruling Socialist Workers' Party and once Sanchez's own right-hand man, announced that he was resigning after being accused of having taken bribes from private individuals in exchange for public works.
Just last Monday, Therdan was finally arrested on charges of accepting bribes to award public contracts to specific construction companies.
Just a few days later, however, and while Sanchez has repeatedly made it clear that he will not give in to those who ask him to go to early polls, a new scandal suddenly breaks out against an executive in Spain's wider prime ministerial environment, this time related to alleged sexual harassment.
However, Sanchez, who became prime minister in 2018, is already facing a series of corruption investigations related to his wife, his brother, former Transport Minister José Luis Abalos and one of the minister's aides, Coldo Garcia, who was arrested in February 2024 as part of an investigation into suspicious contracts concluded by Spain's Transport Ministry for the supply of protective masks.
The aforementioned people claim to be innocent, but the climate has been significantly burdensome for the ruling party recently, which is also reflected in polls.
A poll conducted for the newspaper El Pais and the radio station Cadena SER – before the latest allegations against Frantíco Talatár and his resignation – shows that if elections were held in Spain now, the PSOE would fall to 27%, while the center-right Popular Party (PP) would come first with 33.3% and the far-right Vox would rise to 15.1%.
The next election is normally expected in Spain in 2027. However, the leader of the main opposition and head of the People's Party (PP) Alberto Núñez Feijó has already raised the issue of early recourse to the polls.
The scandal-hit Socialists may be forced to call early elections, giving the conservative leader an opportunity that may not come again. With the conservative Popular Party comfortably ahead in the polls and the Socialist government mired in scandal, Alberto Núñez Feijó now appears to be closer to becoming Spain's prime minister than ever before , Politico wrote in an analysis days ago… before the latest scandal.
