Madrid, April 24, 2024 (AFP)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was been weakened by a graft probe targeting his wife, is an expert in political survival who has made a career out of taking political gambles.
"I have learned to push myself until the referee blows the final whistle," wrote the head of Spain's Socialist party and former basketball player in his 2019 autobiography, "Resistance Manual".
He said on Wednesday that he was considering stepping down just hours after a Madrid court announced it had opened an investigation into his wife Begona Gomez for alleged influence peddling and corruption, and would suspend his schedule until he announces his decision on Monday.
"I need to stop and think," he wrote in a letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.
With a charming smile and affable personality, the 52-year-old -- known as Mr.Handsome -- has been written off politically on several occasions, only to bounce back.
He "has never had it easy", said Paloma Roman, a political scientist at Madrid's Complutense University, praising his "political flair" for getting out of complicated situations.
- Knack for survival -
Sanchez emerged in 2014 from obscurity as a little-known MP to seize the reins of Spain's oldest political party.
A leap-year baby born in Madrid on February 29, 1972, he grew up in a well-off family, the son of an entrepreneur father and civil servant mother.
He studied economics before getting a master's degree in political economy at the Free University of Brussels and a doctorate from a private Spanish university.
Elected to the party leadership in 2014, Sanchez was written off politically after leading the Socialists to their worst-ever electoral defeats in 2015 and 2016.
Ejected from the leadership, he unexpectedly won his job back in a primary in May 2017 after a cross-country campaign in his 2005 Peugeot to rally support.
Within barely a year, the father of two teenage girls took over as premier in June 2018 after an ambitious gamble that saw him topple conservative Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote.
Always immaculately dressed, the telegenic politician -- who likes running and looms over his rivals at 1.90 metres (6 foot 2 inches) tall -- has made a name for being stubborn and tenacious.
Over the past six years, he has had to play a delicate balancing act to stay in power.
- Catalan amnesty deal -
In February 2019, the fragile alliance of left-wing factions and pro-independence Basque and Catalan parties that had catapulted him to the premiership cracked, prompting him to call early elections.
Although his Socialists won, they fell short of an absolute majority, and Sanchez was unable to secure support to stay in power, so he called a repeat election later that year.
Forced into a marriage of convenience with the hard-left Podemos, despite much gnashing of teeth inside his own party, Sanchez has managed to stay in power despite his coalition holding only a minority in parliament.
Spain's first premier to be fluent in English, Sanchez pushed a raft of leftist reforms and oversaw a government with the highest-ever number of women.
Deemed politically dead after his party suffered a drubbing in local and regional elections in 2023, in a surprise move Sanchez called an early general election in July.
While his Socialists finished second in a July general election, behind the conservative Popular Party (PP), Sanchez cobbled together a majority in parliament with the support of the far-left party Sumar and smaller regional parties, including Catalan separatists.
In exchange for their support, Catalonia's two main separatist parties demanded a controversial amnesty for hundreds of people facing legal action over their roles in the northeastern region's failed push for independence in 2017.
Sanchez had previously opposed such a move but he agreed to it despite major protests staged by the right.
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Sumber : AFP