MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday challenged the conservative opposition to submit a no-confidence vote against his minority coalition government as a corruption scandal rocks his ruling Socialists.
The case against a top Socialist official increases legal and political pressure on Sanchez, one of Europe’s longest-serving leftist leaders whose inner circle faces several ongoing investigations.
The main opposition Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox have demanded that Sanchez resign after a judicial report published last week suspected Socialist heavyweight Santos Cerdan of accepting kickbacks in the alleged improper awarding of public contracts.
After an hours-long crisis meeting with top Socialist officials at party headquarters in Madrid, Sanchez hit back at the two opposition parties, who do not command a parliamentary majority.
“They should present a no-confidence motion and tell parliament and the citizens what model of country they want for Spain,“ Sanchez said.
The report also implicated Jose Luis Abalos, a former transport minister and once a member of Sanchez’s inner circle, and his ex-adviser Koldo Garcia.
Cerdan, the Socialists’ third-highest ranked figure, resigned as its organisation secretary last week. On Monday, he relinquished his position as MP and the party definitively expelled Abalos, who sits in parliament as an independent.
Defending the Socialists’ response to the case, Sanchez said his party was “clean” and would not “cover up the corruption that emerges in our ranks, however painful it may be”.
Sanchez again ruled out quitting or holding early elections, saying that he would conduct discussions this week with the far-left and Basque and Catalan separatist parties who backed his government.
The PP reiterated its demand for Sanchez’s resignation and early elections, with party spokesman Borja Semper telling reporters that “the only possible, dignified future is giving the Spanish people their say”.
As well as the Cerdan affair, legal investigations are ongoing against Sanchez’s wife, brother and the country’s Socialist-appointed top prosecutor.
