In January 2020, Pedro Sánchez became the first president of the Democracy fined by the Central Electoral Commission (JEC), for having used the public media of Moncloa for partisan purposes during the electoral campaign.
Since then, he has accumulated three fines from the JEC, for amounts totaling 4,200 euros.
And this Friday, the Electoral Council agreed to open a new case of sanctions against Sánchez, for having launched partisan messages during his appearance on Monday in Moncloa, coinciding with the Extremadura electoral campaign which ended last night.
During this event, convened to take stock of the year, Sánchez maintained that PP and Vox represent the “the most sterile, the most destructive and the ultra opposition recent times.”
He attributed the campaigns of “personal harassment, lies and mud“the cases of corruption and sexual harassment that broke out against the PSOE.
And he boasted of “fantastic macroeconomic data” to conclude that “This government suits Spain well“You just need to see how restaurants, bars or theaters are doing” to see the positive situation of the Spanish people, thanks to the action of their government, he commented.
The Electoral Council considers that Pedro Sánchez thus violated the neutrality required of the institutions during the electoral period.
Something that would violate article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), according to which, “from the calling of the elections until their celebration, any act organized or financed, directly or indirectly, by
public authorities that contain allusions to achievements or achievements obtained, or that use images or expressions that coincide or are similar to those used in their own campaigns by any of the political entities participating in the elections.
In its resolution, the JEC also requests the removal of “mentioned expressions” from the video of the event published by Moncloa on its official YouTube channel.
In January 2020, the Electoral Council had already imposed a first fine of 500 euros on Pedro Sánchez, for an interview he had given to Sexta at the Moncloa Palace, during the general election campaign of November 2019.
Again, The JEC sanctioned Sánchez with 2,200 euros in October 2023, for boasting about the government’s achievements and launching attacks against the PP and Vox, during a press conference held in Brussels after a European Council, during the campaign for the legislative elections of 23D.
In its resolution, the Electoral Council recalled that “the arbitrary use of public resources for the benefit of a specific political group harms all others and, therefore, violates the conditions of equality in which —as provided for in article 23.2 of the Constitution— the right to vote must be exercised.”
Sánchez appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the sanction in May 2021.
THE third fine, 1,500 euroscame to him in July 2021, for having publicly demonstrated his support for the candidacy of Salvador Illa, during an institutional press conference in Doha (Qatar), during the Catalan electoral campaign.
Pedro Sánchez now stumbles on the same rock for the fourth time, during the campaign for the Extremadura elections, which take place this Sunday and which bode ill for the socialist candidate Miguel Ángel Gallardo.
Gallardo is waiting to sit on the bench to create a place in the Provincial Delegation of Badajoz, for the musician brother of the President of the Government.
The JEC imposed fines, for similar acts, on the three Sánchez ministers who assumed the role of government spokesperson: Isabel Celaá, Isabel Rodríguez and Pilar Alegría.
In all three cases, for having launched partisan messages from the Moncloa press room in the middle of the electoral campaign.
The Central Election Commission (JEC) imposed a fine of 2,200 euros for having formulated “political evaluations with electoral connotations” from the Moncloa press room, during the pre-campaign for the general elections of November 2019.
In the same functions, Isabel Rodríguez was hit two fines of 2,200 and 2,500 euros (confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2024) for launching electoral proclamations and attacks against the PP during several press conferences after the Council of Ministers, in the weeks preceding the regional and municipal elections of 28M.
And the current spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, received another fine of 2,200 euros for attacking the PP and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, during a press conference on May 7, 2024 in Moncloa, during the Catalan electoral campaign.
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