In statements that have swept across the country’s news outlets, former President Felipe González—who governed Spain between 1982 and 1996 and was the PSOE Secretary General who forced the party to abandon Marxism—announced yesterday that if Pedro Sánchez is the party’s next candidate, he will cast a blank ballot. Regarding his membership, he remarked: “Me leave? Those who are destroying the party should be the ones to leave.”
The anger felt by González, much like that of almost all historic PSOE leaders toward the current Secretary General and Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is monumental. The list of grievances is immense:
- Political Alliances: He criticizes the pacts made to remain in power, which he claims have disfigured the party’s political line. “I wouldn’t pact with Vox, but I would pact with Bildu even less.”
- The Bildu Agreement: He reproached the fact that Bildu supports Government measures in exchange for the release of the terrorist group’s prisoners: “Have we gone mad? Have we lost our capacity for analysis?”
González criticized the lack of self-criticism within the PSOE after losing the last general elections and nearly all the regional ones. He noted that people call him [Sánchez] “the fucking boss.” “But for there to be a boss, there must be others with the spirit of servants,” he declared.
He took aim at the party for giving wings to the far-right Vox to undermine the PP—“members of the executive branch have admitted this to me”—and argued that to stop Vox, one must instead “make the country work” by providing housing and ensuring public services function properly.
He further attacked the refusal to present budgets for 2024 and 2025—and so far, not for 2026 either—calling it “a violation of the Constitution.”
González’s broadside has resonated across Spain, despite the PSOE parliamentary spokesperson’s insistence that the former president is no longer a benchmark for the party, but rather “a benchmark for the right.” It is a comment that confirms the level of self-criticism currently tolerated within the PSOE.
