Pedro Sánchez is the prime minister of Spain and leader of the Socialist Party. He came to power in 2018 through a censure motion that ousted his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, after a court found the centre-right People's Party (PP) had practised "institutionalised corruption".
Mr Sánchez leads a minority government that depends on the backing of hard-left, Basque and Catalan nationalist parties. He has presided over a sharp rise in the minimum wage. He has been unable to pass a budget since 2023. He negotiated a controversial amnesty for Catalan separatists in return for parliamentary support from the party of Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive separatist leader. His party officially calls itself feminist, at his urging. He insists he will govern until the end of the parliamentary term in 2027. He is the first Spanish prime minister of the current democratic period to speak fluent English, and has been an active player abroad. A brief internal rebellion ousted him as Socialist leader in 2016, but he returned; since then he has sidelined all internal critics.
Mr Sánchez took the European lead in recognising a Palestinian state. He was the lone holdout against NATO's new spending target of 5% of GDP at the alliance's summit in The Hague in June 2025, declaring it "incompatible with our worldview". He promised instead to spend 2.1% of GDP on defence—a big jump from Spain's previous levels, but well short of what allies demanded. His hard-left coalition partners refuse to spend more on defence. Marco Rubio, America's secretary of state, said the agreement Spain reached was "a big problem" and unsustainable. Mr Sánchez has also called for more "balanced relations" with China, an approach opposed by EU states on the eastern fringe who see Beijing through the prism of its support for Russia.
Mr Sánchez urges the EU to fight Donald Trump's "unjustified and unfair" trade tariffs and to consider channelling the proceeds of retaliatory tariffs to hard-hit European businesses. In January he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that over-mighty American social-media platforms and tech billionaires imperil democracy, and urged the EU to enforce the Digital Services Act against online hate speech and disinformation. He backs a long-stalled EU trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc of Latin American countries. In July 2025 he toured Latin America, giving speeches alongside Lula da Silva and vowing to fight an alliance of "oligarchs and the far right".
Mr Sánchez decries multiple corruption and other court cases against his allies and family members as "lawfare". His wife, Begoña Gómez, and his brother face charges; the former prosecutor-general was convicted of leaking tax information. Five judicial associations went on strike in July 2025 over government bills they said threatened judicial independence.
In January 2026 Mr Sánchez granted amnesty to perhaps 800,000 people who are in Spain without papers. Defending the decision in a post on X, he insisted Spain would stay a "welcoming" country and asked what was radical about "recognising rights". On immigration "he's an absolute outlier" in Europe, according to José Ignacio Torreblanca of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
On March 4th 2026 Mr Sánchez went on television to reiterate his opposition to America's attack on Iran. Spain, he said, would not be "complicit in something that is bad for the world...simply because of fear of reprisals". He refused the Americans the use of two Spanish military bases for the assault, invoking a right he said was contemplated in bilateral agreements between the two countries; Donald Trump responded by vowing to "cut off all trade with Spain". Mr Sánchez also criticised America's military extraction of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's dictator, for violating international law. At the February 2026 Munich Security Conference he argued against European "nuclear rearmament". While other leaders seek to placate Mr Trump, Mr Sánchez is hailed by Europe's left for offering a progressive alternative, though some European leaders see him as an irritant.
In office for almost eight years as of early 2026, Mr Sánchez's coalition no longer commands a reliable majority. The Socialists were walloped in regional elections in Extremadura in December 2025 and Aragón in February 2026. The populist-right Vox won over 17% in both regions, forcing the People's Party into difficult negotiations to form governments. Mr Sánchez has admitted that disillusioned left-wing voters are staying at home, and insists he will enthuse them for the general election that must come by July 2027. Pablo Simón, a political scientist, says: "The cycle is ending. Alternation in power is normal."
In June 2025 a judge released a police report containing evidence of systematic corruption by two of Mr Sánchez's closest party aides. Santos Cerdán, nominally the number three in the party hierarchy but in practice its manager—drawing up candidate lists and sidelining internal critics—was accused of "managing" at least €620,000 in bribes on public-works contracts from Acciona, a construction company. Mr Cerdán was remanded in July 2025 on corruption charges, which he denies. The police report included tapes made by Koldo García, a former bouncer at a brothel in Navarre who became an aide to José Luis Ábalos, Mr Cerdán's predecessor and former transport minister. Mr Ábalos was fired without explanation in 2021 and faces trial at the Supreme Court on charges of racketeering. Mr Sánchez apologised eight times at a press conference and promised a shake-up in the party leadership and an external audit of its finances.
Ever wonder if taxation without representation might have been cheaper?