Pedro Sánchez did not arrive at the congress of the Party of European Socialists as president, as he had intended, a date marked in red in La Moncloa and Ferraz, but he did with the investiture already in his pocket after the signing on Thursday of the agreement with Junts, the most difficult political pact of all. The continuity of a socialist president has brought relief to European social democracy after the expansion of conservative governments in alliances that include the far right. The loss of power in Spain, the euro zone's fourth-largest economy and the EU's fourth-most populous country, would have been a catastrophe for European socialists, who suffered an unforeseen blow this week with the resignation of António Costa. Portugal's prime minister, in office since 2015, will be investigated by the Supreme Court in the context of a corruption scandal, and his fall makes Sánchez the social democratic prime minister or president – there are five in total, Germany, Denmark and Romania, apart from Spain and Portugal – with the longest term in office in Europe.
Sánchez has called for "sanity and moderation" after a week of protests marked by violent episodes in front of the headquarters of the PSOE. At the closing of the congress of the Party of European Socialists held in Malaga, the secretary general of the PSOE urged the party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which has called for demonstrations on Sunday in all provincial capitals, to "accept the result of the polls and the legitimacy of the progressive coalition government" that he will preside over after his investiture. scheduled for next Wednesday and next Thursday. "I ask you to have the courage to say no to the bear hug of the extreme right and to abandon the reactionary wave by which it is advancing towards the abyss today," said the acting president.
Some 250 people opposed to the amnesty of those accused of the procés, which Junts and ERC demanded in exchange for making Sánchez's re-election possible, have demonstrated outside the Palacio de Feria y Congresos amid heavy security measures. Santos Cerdán, secretary of Organization of the PSOE, blamed the former president of the Government José María Aznar for the harassment of the socialist people's houses: "We are very concerned about this climate that the right and ultra-right are creating. I would like to remind you when it all began, after Aznar's statements in which he said that everyone should do what they have to do to stop this government. The words of some leaders are very dangerous and here Aznar bears a lot of responsibility for what is happening." "These days, the most nostalgic far right of that cruel Franco dictatorship exhibits symbols and proclamations of a dark past for Spain. A past that we thought we had overcome, whose echo resonates today with the complicity of the traditional right," said Sánchez.
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Pacts and negotiations for Sánchez's investiture, live
"The government is going to move forward with the support of 179 votes. And all of them are legitimate representatives of the popular will. With that strength and legitimacy that gives us the power to agree with everyone, we will govern for all Spaniards for four more years, with social advances, with coexistence and with institutional stability," said the secretary general of the PSOE. Sánchez, who has also held the presidency of the Socialist International for a year, will have the support of the deputies of his coalition partner Sumar (31), ERC (7), Junts (7), EH Bildu (6), PNV (5), BNG (1) and Coalición Canaria (1). The favourable vote of the latter party, which also voted in favour of the failed investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has allowed it to form a transversal bloc that includes centre-right parties, which also includes the PNV in the face of the failed investiture of the leader of the PP because there was no support other than that of Vox and UPN.
Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the Congress of the Party of European Socialists.Paco Puentes
"Spain will once again have a progressive coalition government for the coming years and this government will have the leadership of the PSOE," said Sánchez, who before the closing of the social democratic conclave met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and their counterparts Robert Abela (Malta) and Marcel Ciolacu (Romania).
"This triumph is not exclusive to the Spanish socialists, it is a triumph and a hope for all progressives in Europe. On July 23 we were able to stop the reactionary wave in Spain in the face of a disoriented right and in June we will put an end to this wave by winning the European elections," Sánchez said at an event attended by Third Vice-President Teresa Ribera and Ministers José Manuel Albares, Luis Planas, Diana Morant and José Manuel Miñones. "Spain can only be governed if the country's political pluralism is recognized. The PP can only make a pact with Vox. The PSOE is the only force that can make a pact with the rest of the political forces, except with Vox," Sánchez said at an event that, despite the euphoria contained for having secured the investiture, has been tarnished by the absence of the prime minister of Portugal.
Sánchez, who since his arrival at La Moncloa in June 2018 forged an alliance with Costa in which the Iberian Peninsula became the bastion of the European socialists, has conveyed "a hug on behalf of the European socialist family to a great comrade and a great socialist". Costa resigned on Tuesday "to preserve the dignity of democratic institutions" after the scandal that also affected his chief of staff and a businessman very close to him. "I am at ease with the judgment of my conscience, not only with respect to illegal acts, but even reprehensible ones," he said in his resignation.
The success of 23-J has meant that the leader of the PSOE, who has been president of the Socialist International for a year, has exported the slogan of the socialists in the last general elections, "Forward", to the entire social democratic family. "Forward Europe, forward socialism!" said Stefan Löfven, former Swedish prime minister and president of the Party of European Socialists. Bella Ciao, the anthem of the Italian resistance against the Nazis and fascists in World War II, reverberated as a handful of demonstrators continued their chants against Sanchez outside.
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