Pedro Sánchez is undoubtedly the most traveled president of democracy.
The leader of the PSOE has put a lot of effort into the international agenda, which he considers strategic, unlike other previous presidents, who did not feel as comfortable at summits and minimized their presence to what was essential.
The Davos Forum is clear proof.
Sánchez is already one of the presidents in the world who has been there the most times.
He never fails - this was his sixth participation, one of them telematic in the middle of the pandemic - and he takes advantage of his agenda to completely change the third of the tense Spanish politics and enjoy for two days meetings in which no one asks him about the amnesty and not even because of the political instability in Spain.
In Davos, no one seems to care about the tensions with Carles Puigdemont, which dominate the political agenda in Spain.
Sánchez met with dozens of executives in two days, did two television interviews - Bloomberg and CNBC - and the amnesty or Puigdemont did not appear in any of these meetings.
Not even in the meeting with the main executives of the Ibex 35 were there any mentions of the issue that most tenses Parliament.
Spanish politics is on fire, the amnesty occupies almost all the space, to the despair of the Government, which insists, appealing to the CIS, that it is an issue that is in the media, but does not resonate as much with the citizens.
But on the international scene, Sánchez does not appear as a weak leader, but as a consolidated politician who has achieved a majority for four more years.
And that is clearly perceived in Davos, where the president's team has no difficulty organizing an agenda at the highest level, with the heads of immense multinationals such as Google, Cisco, Intel, Qualcomm, Sanofi and Fujitsu.
With all of them he discussed investments, but above all the great issue of Davos, which has taken Sánchez out of the crude national agenda for a few days: artificial intelligence, with its opportunities, but also its risks.
Up to 40% of the world's jobs will be affected, according to an IMF report.
“We must pay more attention to the concerns of our workers, our young and our elderly, and less attention to the empty promises of some Silicon Valley gurus, who are more interested in gaining followers or climbing the Forbes millionaires list than in the true progress of humanity,” Sánchez would say in his speech in Davos.
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Even the Ibex 35 executives, some of them with significant tensions with the Government over special taxes on energy companies or banking, attended the meeting with Sánchez in Davos in full.
And everyone avoided reproaches.
The appointment, which came with predictions of sit-ins, had the opposite effect: it sanctioned that the Ibex 35, whose ideological distance from Sánchez is evident, assumes, unlike part of the opposition, that the president most likely has several years ahead of him. more than mandate.
The only one who could not attend due to a commitment from the forum's own organization, Ana Botín, made an effort to approach Sánchez and have a photograph with him alone to dispel any suspicion of tension.
“When a president calls you, you can't not go.
Sánchez has been there for five years and has shown that he can be there for another four.
Institutional respect must be shown.
We will tell you the issues that we do not like in private,” stated one of the executives.
In La Moncloa they believe that precisely the image that was offered of an Ibex 35 facing the Government made all the executives change their agendas to be at the meeting and avoid a problem with the Executive, with which they need to understand dozens of issues.
Even Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial) attended the meeting and spoke only about artificial intelligence as if nothing had happened, after Sánchez harshly attacked him for moving the headquarters of the Spanish multinational to the Netherlands.
At that moment, one of the most critical that La Moncloa has experienced with the business world, the opposition pointed out that there could be a chain of departures.
But it didn't happen, no one followed in Ferrovial's footsteps, and that gave the Government a lot of peace of mind, which dispelled the fear predicted by the PP.
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Sánchez's full speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos
The change in the perception of Sánchez in the world can be analyzed based on what they ask him in the meetings.
In the first Davos there were many doubts with a president brought in by a motion of censure, with the support of those who, in the eyes of those who dominate this heart of capitalism that meets in an idyllic town in the Swiss Alps, are communists. unredeemed, like Podemos and its then leader, Pablo Iglesias.
They feared his reforms above all.
For a few more years they asked him, less and less, about political stability in Spain and above all about the reforms, about labor reforms, about the housing law, which could affect the interests of large investment funds.
But now those initial doubts have been cleared up and with Sánchez the executives only talk about business: investments, public-private collaboration, European funds, and this year especially artificial intelligence, projects in which Spain can participate.
The Spanish president gives everyone guarantees, opens the doors to them and is convinced that there will be more and more big projects in Spain.
Senior executives pass through La Moncloa to announce large investments: last week IAG, Iberia's parent company, announced an investment of 6 billion in five years and Ryanair 5 billion in seven.
Sánchez, like other European presidents, points out that the State will not be immune to all these business movements either.
The purchase of 10% of Telefónica was a clear message.
The Government is looking closely at the latest big movement, the purchase of 20% of Naturgy by Blackrock, the American giant, whose leader, Larry Fink, Sánchez has met several times in Davos or New York.
The leader of the PSOE is committed to a world very different from the one proposed by the Argentine Javier Milei – who spoke on the same stage as him a few minutes apart –, who defends that the “problem” is the State and the capitalists are the “heroes.” ”.
“Today, Spaniards know that neoliberal policies do not work,” cried the Spanish president, who opted for “a new virtuous triangle formed by the private sector, the State and civil society”: “That allows us to guarantee economic prosperity, “increase well-being and equality and ensure environmental sustainability for everyone, everywhere.”
Sánchez receives much milder treatment outside Spain than inside.
And above all, the agenda changes.
But no one is deceived in La Moncloa: the important thing is what happens inside, which is what decides the elections and the votes in Parliament.
Now the difficult negotiation of the Budgets with ERC and Junts begins and the amnesty continues its path with a good part of the justice system against it.
And the PP, which believes that the alliance with Junts greatly wears down Sánchez, will push to the limit to weaken the president.
Davos does not give any vote, nor does it change Spanish public opinion.
But it does serve as a thermometer of the country's image in the world.
And it does not seem that there are major concerns with Spain in the economic world, neither outside nor inside, with an Ibex 35 that closed a record year in 2023 with a 22% rise.
Sánchez, in fact, if compared with the main European leaders, is stronger than most because he has just formed a government and manages to approve practically all the reforms that he promotes, something that not many can say in unstable Europe.
The drama of Spanish politics drops a lot when seen from the outside, although what really matters is what is perceived inside.
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