Mark Nayler

‘We demand our right to vote’: what Spaniards really think of their new socialist PM

Spain has a new prime minister, but Spaniards are not happy about it. A WhatsApp message is circulating across the country at the moment, saying:

“We Spaniards demand our right to vote. We demand the right to decide who is the president of Spain. ‘No’ means ‘no’ to Pedro Sánchez. If you’re in agreement, pass this message on until elections are called”

The message refers to the leader of the Spanish Socialists (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, who sneaked in as the country’s leader last Friday after his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, lost a no-confidence vote. While that vote had disastrous consequences for Rajoy, for Sánchez – who tabled it in the first place – it has propelled him into Spain’s top job. 

The 46-year-old’s ascension reveals him to be a career politician who knows how to work the system. In a well-timed move in 2016, Sánchez resigned his leadership of the PSOE after refusing to take part in a parliamentary vote that allowed Rajoy to carry on as prime minister. Last May, Sánchez was back at the helm of his party, aided by a lack of credible alternatives and a crisis within the PSOE.

In the run-up to the confidence vote, Sánchez was determined to sling mud on Rajoy, painting his rival’s PP as dogged by corruption over an alleged party-wide cash-for-contracts racket. Yet his fervour in rooting out wrongdoing didn’t seem to apply to his own party, which is no stranger to corruption either. Indeed, unhappiness levelled at the PSOE – as well as the PP – was one of the big reasons for Spaniards deserting the two main parties in their droves at the last election. Instead, many plumped for two new parties – centrist Ciudadanos (“Citizens”) and leftist Podemos (“We Can”) – in 2015. This ended decades of dual dominance by the PP and the PSOE.

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