AN academic and economist who’s had more comebacks than Lazarus, Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez, will become the country’s prime minister once King Felipe VI swears him in.
The 46-year-old, camera-friendly career politician – a former Madrid councillor and ex-MP – instigated the no-confidence motion that yesterday saw off Mariano Rajoy after he secured votes from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNB) to oust the conservative People’s Party (PP) incumbent.
READ MORE: Mariano Rajoy removed as Spanish PM after vote of no confidence
He had to make some deals – or at least public pledges – to gain that support and said he would leave in place Rajoy’s budget measures which were of particular benefit to the Basques.
Sanchez, whose party has only 84 members in the Congress of Deputies – the lower house of Spain’s parliament – also vowed to open a dialogue with independence-seeking Catalans.
Known as “Mr Handsome”, he is a career politician and political survivor and becomes prime minister despite not having a parliamentary seat – candidates in Spain need only meet the age threshold to qualify.
PSOE had suffered a string of dreadful results and following two inconclusive general elections, Sanchez refused to facilitate Rajoy’s return to office.
His party’s executive committee was angered by his position on the corruption scandals that were engulfing the PP and half of them launched a coup in 2016, prompting his resignation that October.
READ MORE: Door open to Catalan self-rule after Rajoy ousted from power
Sanchez then did the most un-leaderlike thing imaginable – he went off on a road trip across the country, saying: “On Monday I’ll get in my car and travel all round Spain to listen to those who haven’t been listened to, to the grassroots members and left-wing voters.”
Cast out into the political wilderness for seven months, it was a move that paid dividends when he returned to Madrid and stood again for the party leadership – cruising to an easy victory.
Fernando Vallespin, a politics professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, says he is a “risky bet”.
“Sanchez is an audacious politician but not especially reflective and he thinks more in the short-term.
“Fate is giving him the opportunity to play a central role.”
The PP’s Fernando Martinez-Maillo has said: “Pedro Sanchez will go down in history as the Judas of Spanish politics”, while Rajoy himself accused Sanchez of “opportunism at the service of personal ambition”.
Carles Puigdemont, the ousted Catalan president who is in exile in Germany – awaiting a court ruling on a Spanish bid to extradite him – gave his reaction in a tweet: “If we were for revenge, today we could give to satisfied. But as we are for Justice, still can’t celebrate anything. We still have a long struggle and a long way to overcome the injustices, which are many and persistent.”
Like everywhere else, Catalonia will have to wait and see. President Quim Torra will announce a new executive later today in a bid to regain self-government, which was removed by Rajoy seven months ago.
Sanchez said he would open talks with the Catalan government over its indy aspirations and is keen on constitutional reform – which is likely to be a federal one that would keep Catalonia within Spain.
Puigdemont said Catalonia should be prepared to wait it out: “Those who until a few hours ago were still the owners and masters of the springs of the state must be held accountable, but we have a lot of patience to see it, its abuses and violations of rights.”
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