Simon Hunter
SPANISH Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez surprised everyone on Monday, when he called a snap election after his Socialist Party suffered serious losses at the local and regional elections. On Wednesday, he had another surprise up his sleeve, after he went on an extraordinary attack against the country’s right-wing parties and right-wing media.
Speaking to lawmakers from his party in Congress, the prime minister predicted that his political foes would take a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book and accuse him of ‘rigging’ the July 23 general election.
“This is nothing new,” he said. “Their North American masters sent a crazed mob to attack the Capitol to denounce non-existent vote-rigging,” he said, in reference to the events of January 6, 2021 in Washington DC.
He also predicted that the right-wing, groups such as the conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox, would raise ‘tensions to unimagined heights’ in the run-up to the polls, to distract from the Socialists’ policies and campaign and to demobilise the electorate.
As for the media, he claimed that hit TV shows would be ‘inventing outrageous claims’, in a bid, he continued, to ‘copy the methods of their North American masters.
According to news agency Europa Press, he referred to a meeting he held on Tuesday with former US secretary of state and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, pointing to the ‘pizzagate’ scandal involving false claims that the politician was at the centre of a paedophile ring.
The prime minister railed against the PP and Vox, calling them both ‘far right’, claiming that their only electoral plans were to revoke ‘sanchismo’, as the opposition refers to his politics and his style.
Read more:
- Explainer: What will Spain’s first summer general election mean for voters?
- Analysis: Why has Spain’s prime minister called snap elections?
- Spain’s opposition leader welcomes early elections but accuses PM of distracting attention from PP’s gains
