Spanish PM Sanchez to decide on resignation

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is expected to announce whether he will resign his premiership today amid corruption allegations against his wife.

Sanchez’s wife, Begona Gomez, is accused of accepting graft while she was the director of a Madrid business school’s research center. A Spanish court announced on Wednesday that it had begun a preliminary investigation into Gomez. The next day, Sanchez announced that he would suspend all public duties until today when he intends to address the nation. Sanchez leads a minority coalition government headed by his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.

The Prime Minister is only likely to resign today if the allegations against his wife have any truth to them, even though Sanchez is expected to frame any resignation as a self-sacrificing act. In the short-term, resignation will lead to a caretaker government and require the current minority coalition to attempt to form a new one. It is unlikely to achieve this given the fragility of the current government. This will lead to new elections which will likely result in conservatives returning to power given the gains they made in recent regional elections. In summary, in the medium to long-term, Sanchez’s resignation will likely lead to the end of his country’s most recent experimentation with a left-wing government.