Brussels – Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is not backing down; in fact, he is doubling down. In an interview with the national newspaper El País, he ruled out the possibility of calling early elections, despite the withdrawal of the Catalan Junts party from the governing coalition, and announced that he will run again for the Moncloa in 2027, aiming to lead the social democratic response to the rise of the far-right international movement in Spain, in Europe, and around the world. Sanchez is the self-appointed leader of the progressive movement, on the strength of record economic growth that makes Madrid the new growth engine of Europe.
In a lengthy talk with the newspaper, the prime minister leader of the European socialist family called to arms all progressive forces, on both sides of the Atlantic, to “give a constructive response” to the “international movement of the extreme right,” which is “well organised” but is “beginning to show signs of exhaustion.” In the front line with him are the left-wing leaders of Latin America, with whom Sanchez met in Santa Marta, Colombia, on the occasion of the summit between the European Union and the CELAC countries. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Uruguay’s Yamandú Orsi, Chile’s Gabriel Boric, “and many other progressive governments.”
In Europe, Sanchez has remained the progressive bulwark in the face of the rapid advance of right-wing and far-right parties. Besides Madrid, currently the only Social Democratic-led government among the 27 member states is that of Mette Frederiksen in Denmark. However, Copenhagen’s social democracy is a different story, marked by harsh anti-immigration rhetoric, a firm stance in favour of rearmament policies, and a historically austere approach to spending. Yet Sanchez, who in Madrid leads a minority government held together by a very fragile coalition agreement (from which the Catalan independents pulled out a few weeks ago), does not give up. “After careful reflection, with my party, but above all with my family, which directly suffers the consequences of this commitment and responsibility, I announce that I have decided to take this step,” he announced to El Pais. The goal is to continue leading the country after 2027, bringing stability to a legislature that is “more complex than the previous one,” in an increasingly polarized political ecosystem, with the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, having “surrendered to the extreme right.”
For the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party, the entire “political, media, and intellectual right” is guilty of “cleaning up the discourse of the extreme right,” a discourse that social network owners consciously amplify, “not spreading the truth, but disinformation and polarisation.” A strategy – Sanchez again denounced – “closely linked to the political objectives of technocrats who clearly influence electoral processes.” The rapprochement between the moderate right and the sovereignist universe is particularly visible in the European Parliament, where the People’s Party is increasingly distancing itself from the pro-European groups by exploiting the possible alternative majority with the extreme right groups.
In Brussels, many see Sánchez as a guarantor of stability, perhaps the last guarantee of the fragile alliance between the progressive camp and the moderate right. If he were to fall, the Socialists could drop the EPP, potentially bringing down the majority supporting the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In short, Sanchez does not want to break with the centre right; indeed, he admitted that in Madrid, it will be necessary to “articulate more agreements with the main opposition party,” that of Núñez Feijóo.
The challenge that Sanchez has launched against the ultra-conservative universe is a complex one, given the rise of reactionary policies and sovereignism in Europe and the United States. Yet, it was in New York, the “financial capital of the world,” where the socialist Zohran Mamdani has triumphed, that the Spanish prime minister glimpsed “the signs of a revival of progressive options.”
By necessity, Sanchez’s Spain must be the emblem of this: politically at odds with the rest of Europe, Spain is nonetheless driving its economic growth, with GDP rising by 3 percent a year since 2023 and employment expanding at an unprecedented pace. From the cockpit of Europe’s new growth engine, Sánchez is urging progressive forces around the world to get on board, a train that is moving fast, but on a steep uphill track.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
