Sánchez No Longer Governs

Pedro Sánchez remains formally Spain’s prime minister — with a full cabinet, a legion of advisors, and daily appearances from the presidential podium at La Moncloa. But to govern? That he no longer does. He doesn’t lack title; he lacks effect. What he now does is defend himself, dig in, and vanish behind evasive legal strategies, press releases, and distraction tactics.

Today’s Spain is paralysed. The Congress does not legislate, negotiate, or reform. The only thing flowing freely is a bottomless sewer of leaked audio clips, opaque contracts, and uncomfortable family connections. What once served as institutional facade has crumbled, exposing a power machine corroded by clientelism, nepotism, and a culture of impunity that no longer even tries to hide itself.

Every day, Sánchez loses another game. His credibility is eroding, his allies are dissipating, his influence is waning — yet he plays on, like a compulsive gambler with empty chips, betting with others’ stakes, not his own. He does it not from conviction but from sheer compulsion. Everything he touches ceases to be governance and becomes merely an alibi.

The moment evokes The Godfather, when Tom Hagen warns Michael Corleone: “The one who comes to you with a problem… that will be the traitor.” Sánchez ought to rewatch that film — not because he doesn’t know it — he almost certainly has it bookmarked in his mind like a second constitution — but because he is on the cusp of seeing that prophecy fulfilled. Betrayal will come from within; it won’t take a formal motion of no confidence. A single ally walking away, a single refusal, will be enough to blow the whole structure apart.

And yet the illusion persists. Despite the collapse of his governing capacity, his political stagecraft continues. His ministers barely hold up; the surrounding apparatus is devoted exclusively to resisting judicial pressure. Sanchez no longer manages — he hides. He doesn’t lead — he simulates.

With the independentists who once propped him up now questioning the value of their alliance, and Europe increasingly indifferent to his rhetoric, the public’s patience has worn thin. The illusions that once greeted his speeches have evaporated; the trick has been revealed. No more applause — only boos.

Yet he remains in place, because the opposition fails to seize the moment. The People’s Party still lacks a compelling alternative narrative; Vox clings to dogma without broadening its appeal; and the rest of the political board is occupied by opportunists who see power as a game of division, not a project of governance.

In politics, the last act comes when the spectacle is over and reality takes the stage. Pedro Sánchez may still sign decrees and deliver speeches, but those are props. La Moncloa has become a hollow set, a stage decoration with no real action behind it.

Only one question remains: when will it fall? And who will be the one to invite him to step out and leave the stage? Like in The Godfather II, that moment will come — and soon.

Meanwhile, Sánchez no longer governs. He remains. But governing? That chapter is over.

Feijóo recently proposed new benefit payments — this time for people with celiac disease. One could list countless other social groups with far more urgent needs, yet he floated this idea in a soft, hushed tone… instead of challenging Sánchez directly to fund the ELA law immediately.

Worse still, Feijóo has staged this convention in Madrid — erroneously assuming that setting up shop in the capital will help his cause. What it will actually do is throw him into stark contrast with emerging young leaders who outmatch him in combative energy and razor-sharp determination. But he doesn’t see it. Instead, he insists that he is not another Rajoy, yet speaks in Rajoy’s own terminology. He claims seriousness over the new breed of politicians by using the exact language of the old guard — excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta.

Meanwhile, Sánchez’s response is to regularise half a million undocumented people who have already committed crimes. They will not be allowed to vote in the general election — not yet — but the shift he seeks moves from the bottom up, not the other way around. He learned this approach from the Venezuelan and Argentine playbook: Chávez, Maduro, Kirchner — altering the social base is not a quick task, it is a generational undertaking.

According to TheObjective.com, Spain’s foreign-born population has grown by 2.5 million in five years. It’s not a wave anymore. It’s a change in landscape.

The Noose Tightens

Yet Sánchez’s luck is running out. If tomorrow he sets up a circus, his dwarves will grow taller than the ringmaster. Santos Cerdán’s indictment is just the latest chapter. Every day reveals a new member of the band. But Spain doesn’t need them. What it needs is a serious opposition — a People’s Party that is more aggressive and renewed, and a Vox that understands that extreme moves à la Javier Milei are not viable in a country like this. Meanwhile, the justice system is tightening the noose around the government’s neck. The real problem is: there is no executioner. Neither the opposition nor a populace that, though fed up, has not yet fully woken up.

And when it finally does — Spain may find the sun high in the sky illuminating Pedro Sánchez’s plans once again.