On 1 October 2016, the day the PSOE executive kicked Pedro Sánchez out of the party’s general secretariat (his subsequent revenge would be merciless) El País defined Sánchez’s profile in its editorial “Saving the PSOE”:
“The inevitable and legitimate dismissal of Pedro Sánchez is the only way out for the party”. “The departure of the PSOE’s secretary general, Pedro Sánchez, is essential…. Sánchez has not turned out to be a rational leader, but an unscrupulous fool who does not hesitate to destroy the party he has led with so many blunders rather than acknowledge his enormous failure.
We have learned that Sánchez has lied unscrupulously to his colleagues. We have seen that his swings to the right and to the left occurred solely on the basis of his personal interests, not his values or his ideology, both of which are quite unknown”.
Antonio Caño, who edited El País between 2014 and 2018, explained in an interview in the newspaper El Mundo (29-11-2020) the change in the PSOE with Pedro Sánchez:
“Rubalcaba’s (Sánchez’s predecessor) farewell was sad. His people suffered a purge”. “He (Sánchez) has created the false image that he has returned the PSOE to the left-wing camp, from which someone once pulled it out. No, no. The PSOE has always been on the left in solidarity, for progress, equality, justice. The PSOE is the anti-nationalist and anti-identity left that stands for citizens, not identities. Sánchez has come to destroy this concept and impose another, populist and identity-based one…”. “The PSOE became social democratic under Felipe González and I don’t know what Sánchez wants to do with it, but it is certainly a much more personalist party, much more caudillista, where the executive bodies hardly count…” . “The PSOE had a lot of contestation, Felipe lost many internal votes. And this plurality of voices and currents was ultimately very enriching for Spanish democracy. And this contribution is now in danger”.
Of course, Antonio Caño no longer runs El País, which has always been a stylish version of “El Socialista”. Pedro Sánchez neither forgets nor forgives. And if José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero left the PSOE devastated and on the verge of extinction, Pedro Sánchez is on his way to the same. Although the PSOE has always been saved – at least until now – by the fact that all the polls always reflect a Spain with a majority of centre… left-wingers.
Regarding the article “Spain: a flawed democracy?” by Pedro Abellán, another author, Daniel Iborra, explained a few days ago that:
“Everything has been confirmed: from the breach of his electoral promises, that he would never agree with independentistas and Podemos, to how he has managed the pandemic (states of alarm and closure of Congress declared unconstitutional, non-existent committees of experts, concealment of information, lack of transparency in most of the actions and transactions, decisions without any technical rigour? )….then agreements with political parties contrary to the Constitution, secret and destructive of the rule of law, the assault on justice and key state institutions (presidency of Congress, State Attorney’s Office, Public Prosecutor’s Office, CIS, Transparency Council, public companies, diplomatic corps…). And in legislative matters, the assault on the judiciary and key state institutions (presidency of Congress, State Attorney’s Office, CIS, Transparency Council, public companies, diplomatic corps…). ). And in legislative matters, the preference of “ideological laws” over those of interest to citizens; the consultation process is ignored and those that are requested, if they do not agree, are ignored, even if they denounce they may be unconstitutional, abuse of the decree-law and the single reading. .. Even the freedom of the press is under attack, except for “like-minded and submissive journalists, trying to exclude those who exercise their function of giving truthful information to the citizens, which is fundamental for an efficient democracy”.
