Last week, the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, announced that today – Monday the 29th – he will decide whether or not to continue in the Presidency of his country. The reason for the threat of resignation was the admission by a judge of a complaint for acts of corruption against President Sánchez’s wife. Of course, this is not just the beginning of the investigation, but rather a campaign of political and media harassment against the wife of the Spanish president. Some would say political things. And it is true, in the development of this activity, the personal matters more and more. Since childhood, the beliefs, friends and family of those who hold public office have become more than relevant. The media presence, which covers almost everything, is the platform that helps trigger attacks on the private lives of the powerful.
Of course, Pedro Sánchez did not remain idle and took a turn that no one expected by announcing in a public letter that he would consider his permanence in the presidential office due to the persecution suffered by his wife. In his letter, after denouncing “a coalition of right-wing and ultra-right interests that do not tolerate the reality of Spain, that do not accept the verdict of the polls and that are willing to spread mud” to hide their corruption and absence of a project, Sánchez gave a twist in a few lines: “This attack is unprecedented, it is so serious and so crude that I need to stop and reflect with my wife. Many times we forget that behind politicians there are people. And I, I am not ashamed to say it, I am a man deeply in love with my wife, who lives helplessly with the mud that is spread on her day in and day out.” And he concludes by announcing that today he will announce his decision.
Sánchez’s announcement surprised Spain. The socialist party to which the president belongs organized mobilizations in support of him, denouncing the very low level of political opponents, the demand for the normalization of democratic life and the permanence of Sánchez in the Presidency. The president’s ill-wishers denounce open blackmail disguised as romantic disrespect, they point out that the president is in love, but with power, not with his wife, and they accuse him of representing “the past, rupture and decadence.”
Regardless of the decision that Pedro Sánchez makes, the truth is that the personal life of politicians is an increasingly public matter. They are costs of power. Beyond the case of the consort of the president of Spain, the truth is that families often pay for the dishes that the powerful buy. In Mexico, a few weeks ago, the son of Xóchitl Gálvez was subjected to public ridicule with the video of a drunken binge; The President’s minor son is constantly the object of public ridicule (the case of the older children is discussed separately, since the certainty that it is a triad of corrupt people is increasingly widespread). Claudia Sheinbaum has mentioned her grandmother’s bank accounts and brings up a mess with children, property and ex-husband.
For many, the personal life – which includes their families – of the powerful is also a political act and must be judged in that light. Safeguarding family members from the public spotlight requires intelligence and giving up many attractive things that come with power. It is increasingly clear that one of those renunciations is to privacy.
