🇪🇸🗳️ Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Casjon has been the president of the Spanish government since June 2, 2018, and the secretary general of the PSOE (center-left, social democrats) since 2017. He holds a doctorate in economics and was a professor of this subject at the University of Cela José José. On October 5, 2026, he dissolved the Cortes and announced general elections for November 29, in which he is running as the socialist candidate.
He joined the PSOE in 1993, was an adviser in the European Parliament and a member of the cabinet of the UN High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was a councilor in the Madrid City Council between 2004 and 2009. He was the deputy of Madrid between 2009 and 2016 and from 20163 and 2016. In July 2014, he won the primary for the General Secretary of the PSOE, from which he was forced to resign in 2016, after achieving his worst results in the elections that year (in which he also lost his seat in Congress).
The following year, he continued to challenge the incumbent General Secretary of the PSOE, seeking re-election, and on 1 June 2018, he won a motion of no confidence against Rajoy, the first to succeed in democracy, following the Gürtel case ruling. He won the general elections of April and November 2019 and in January 2020 formed with Unidas Podemos the first coalition government since the Second Republic. After the general election in July 2023, in which the PP was the leading force, he was re-elected on 16 November 2023 with 179 votes, thanks to allegiance with far-left forces and Pharisees. The 2024 amnesty law, which was not included in his plan, sparked daily demonstrations at the PSOE headquarters in Perez.
His third term was marked by judicial investigations around him: his wife, Begunia Gomez, for alleged influence peddling, which in April 2024 led to the suspension of his agenda for five days to decide whether to continue; his brother David, for the influence he engaged in his non-appearance office at the Diputación de Badajoz; and the Koldo affair, which led to the deportation of his right-hand man and his resignation and the temporary imprisonment of the secretary of his organization in 2025. Sánchez apologized, announced an audit in the party and an anti-corruption program (which has not yet taken place), and defended the presumption of innocence of those being investigated.
He is defined as a social democrat and Europeanist. His governments raised the minimum wage every year, approved the 2021 labor reform, the minimum basic income subsidy, the euthanasia law, Franco's exhumation, a historical revisionist law regarding the Franco dictatorship and in 2026, the extraordinary series of immigrants (estimated at 1 million) and a failed state housing program. In foreign policy, he recognized the Palestinian state in May 2024, rejected the increase in defense spending to 5% of GDP as demanded by NATO, and opposed the military intervention against Iran in 2026.
Sánchez called for early elections in search of a "broader majority".
From a more personal perspective, Sánchez has been accused by his opponents of running his party and the country autocratically. He lied many times, deceived his electorate several times, and showed his willingness to make a deal with the devil himself to stay in power. His composure and appearance gave him the appearance of someone majestic and intelligent, when in fact he is cold and calculating in an extreme, almost manic way. He is often described as classist, as he channeled and championed much of the rhetoric against his opponents on the right, trying to demonize his opposition and present himself as Spain's only hope.