Pedro Sánchez

After resigning as Secretary-General of the party, Sánchez made a tour aboard his car visiting base members in different parts of Spain.[16][17]

On 21 May 2017, Sánchez was re-elected Secretary-General for the second time with 50.2% of the votes, over his competitors Susana Díaz (39.94%) and Patxi López (9.85%).[18]

Sánchez opposed the Catalan independence referendum and supported the Rajoy government's decision to dismiss the Catalan government and impose direct rule on Catalonia in October 2017.[19][20]

Sánchez and his new cabinet at La Moncloa in June 2018

Sánchez took office on 2 June 2018 in the presence of former Prime Minister Rajoy, President of the Congress Ana Pastor, as well as King Felipe VI.[26] Spanish media noted that while Sánchez was swearing his oath of office on the Spanish Constitution, no Bible nor crucifix were on display, for the first time in modern Spanish history due to Sánchez's atheism.[27] After being sworn in, Sánchez announced that he would only propose measures that had considerable parliamentary support, and reaffirmed the government's compliance with the EU deficit requirements.[28]

The 17 ministers of his new cabinet took office on 7 June 2018.[29] Sánchez formed a cabinet with 11 of the 18 ministerial positions of the Council being held by women.[30]

Sánchez during his speech at the event organized by the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement on 19 March 2019.

Since his arrival to power he has been strongly pro-European. This is evidenced by changes including the renaming of the Foreign Ministry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, and reverting the Secretary of State for European Affairs back to its original name, the Secretary of State for the European Union. He appointed Josep Borrell, former President of the European Parliament, as Foreign Minister, and Nadia Calviño as Minister of Economy, who served as Director-General for the EU Budget, and Secretary-General of the European Economic and Social Committee Luis Planas as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.[31]

He also took a more active role in the international sphere, especially in the European Union, saying that "Spain has to claim its role" and declaring himself "a militant pro-European".[32]

On 16 January 2019, in a speech before the European Parliament, he said that the EU should be protected and turned into a global actor, and that a more social Europe is needed, with a strong monetary union.[33] He stated in a speech in March 2019 adding that the enemies of Europe are inside of the European Union.[34]

Sánchez with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 26 June 2018

In June 2018, the ship Aquarius carrying 629 migrants that were rescued near Libya was denied entry to the Sicilian port by Italy's new Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.[35][36] The Spanish government offered the Aquarius the chance to dock in the secure port of Valencia, Spain and the Italian navy offered full assistance and a marine escort for the trip.[37][38] On 4 July 2018, the Spanish government accepted another NGO vessel, in this case a Spanish NGO called Open Arms carrying 60 migrants after Italy rejected again open a port for the ship.[39] The same happened two weeks later.[40]

The Prime Minister considered the immigration matter as a European matter and showed its solidarity with the German Government by accepting an agreement between Germany, Greece and Spain so this last two agreed to take care of part of the immigrants that live in Germany.[41] "Unilateralism not the answer to migrant crisis", he said in an interview in a clear reference to the initiative of the Italian Government to close the ports while also stating: "As effective as the inflammatory rhetoric from some Italian leaders may be in electoral terms, from the point of view of responding effectively to a humanitarian crisis like the one we're seeing in the Mediterranean and on the Italian coast, it's not the answer".[42]

Sánchez has called for joint U.K.-Spanish sovereignty over British-controlled Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory in the south of the Iberian peninsula.[43] He publicly warned that Spain will "veto" Brexit deal over the issue of Gibraltar.[44] In November 2018, Sánchez said that "With Brexit we all lose, especially the United Kingdom, but when it comes to Gibraltar, Spain wins."[45]

On 18 June 2018, Sánchez' government announced its intention to remove the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos.[46] On 29 June 2018, the Archdiocese of Madrid warned the Spanish government against any plans to exhume the remains of Franco without first obtaining agreement from interested parties and formally stated it is against any move of Franco's remains without the consent of his family and before consultation with the Catholic Church. In addition, in its statement the Archdiocese of Madrid re-affirmed its position that although the Valle de los Caídos is officially a national monument, the Catholic Church must be consulted on burial-related matters under agreements between the Spanish state and the Vatican.[47] The announcement of the Archdiocese of Madrid was made after Pedro Sánchez confirmed that it was his intention to remove the remains of Franco from the Valle de los Caídos by the end of July.[48][49]

On 24 August 2018, Sánchez's cabinet approved a decree that modifies two aspects of the 2007 Historical Memory Law to allow the exhumation of Franco's remains from the Valle de los Caídos. The decree, to become law, must be passed by a vote of the Congress of Deputies. The conservative People's Party (PP) and the centre-right party Ciudadanos (Cs) have announced they will not support the decree. The PP further stated it will appeal the measure to the Constitutional Court arguing that using a decree to change the Historical Memory Law is not valid because the proposed modifications to the Historical Memory Law do not respond to a situation of urgent need. Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo stated the decree law requires the exhumation of the remains of Franco to take place between 30 days and 12 months of passage by the Congress of Deputies.[50] The Congress of Deputies voted in favor of the exhumation on 13 September 2018.[51] After a year of legal battles with Franco's descendants, the exhumation took place on 24 October 2019, and Franco was reburied at Mingorrubio Cemetery in El Pardo with his wife Carmen Polo.[52]

In November 2018, the Mossos d'Esquadra reported the arrest of a Terrassa resident who was angry with the plans to exhume Franco and having an arsenal of 16 weapons back home[n. 1] allegedly planned to kill Sánchez in order to finish, in his own words, with that "shitty red".[53]

Sánchez said he would "reinstate dialogue" with the Catalan independence movement.[25] In order to do so, the central government and the regional government reactivated intergovernmental commissions, a series of bodies composed by representatives of both governments.[54] Although there was some progress in the economic field, these commissions were paralyzed by the Catalonia regional government's demand to speak about a self-determination referendum, something that the central government rejected and in February 2019 the central government considered the relations between the two governments broken.[55] In December 2018, the FT reported that Sánchez "has warned Catalonia's government that he could deploy national police to the region, as tension flares up again between Madrid and Catalan separatists a year after a failed secession attempt".[56] The distance between the two governments became clear when the parliamentary opposition—among which was Catalan separatism—rejected the government's budget.[57] After this, the Prime Minister called a snap election.[58]

In September 2018, Defense Minister Margarita Robles cancelled sales of laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia over concerns relating to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. Overruling Robles, Sánchez ordered the sale to proceed[59] because he had guaranteed President of Andalusia Susana Díaz help to protect jobs in the shipyards of the Bay of Cádiz, highly dependent on the €1.813 billion contract with Saudi Arabia to deliver five corvettes.[60][61] In response to the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, Sánchez defended the decision to continue arms sales to Saudi Arabia and insisted on his government's "responsibility" to protect jobs in the arms industry.[62][63]

Prime Minister Sánchez announcing a snap election for 28 April 2019.

After the rejection of his budget, Sánchez called an early general election for 28 April 2019, making a television announcement in which he declared that "between doing nothing and continuing with the [former] budget and calling on Spaniards to have their say, I chose the second. Spain needs to keep advancing, progressing with tolerance, respect, moderation and common sense".[64]

The PSOE won the election, obtaining 29% of the vote which translated into 123 seats in the Congress of Deputies, well over the 85 seats and 23% share of the vote the party obtained in the 2016 election.[65] PSOE also won a majority in the Senate. Whilst the PSOE were 53 seats short of the 176 seats needed for an outright majority in the Congress of Deputies, a three-way split in the centre-right vote assured that it was the only party that could realistically form a government.[66][67][68]

On 6 June 2019, King Felipe VI, having previously held prospective meetings with the spokespeople of the political groups with representation in the new Congress of Deputies, formally proposed Sánchez as prospective Prime Minister. Sánchez accepted the task of trying to form a government "with honor and responsibility".[69] Several weeks of negotiations with Podemos ended in an agreement that Sánchez would appoint several Podemos members to the Cabinet, although not the party's leader Pablo Iglesias.[70] But in the final voting session, Podemos rejected the agreement and led Sánchez to try a second chance to be inaugurated in September.

Sánchez and Iglesias announcing a tentative agreement for a "progressive" government (Palacio de las Cortes, 12 November 2019).

Following the results of the November 2019 Spanish general election, on 12 November 2019 Pedro Sánchez and Iglesias announced a preliminary agreement between PSOE and Unidas Podemos to rule together creating the first coalition government of the Spanish democracy, for all purposes a minority coalition as it did not enjoy a qualified majority at the Lower House, thus needing further support or abstention from other parliamentary forces in order to get through.[71][72] On 7 January 2020, Pedro Sánchez earned a second mandate as Prime Minister after receiving a plurality of votes in the second round vote of his investiture at the Congress of Deputies.[73] He was then once again sworn in as Prime Minister by King Felipe on 8 January.[74][75] Soon after, Sánchez proceeded to form a new cabinet with 22 ministers and 4 vice-presidencies, who assumed office on 13 January.[76][77]

On 13 March 2020, Sánchez announced a declaration of the constitutional state of alarm in the nation for a period of 15 days, to become effective the following day after the approval of the Council of Ministers, becoming the second time in democratic history and the first time with this magnitude.[78] The following day imposed a nationwide lockdown, banning all trips that were not force majeure and announced it may intervene in companies to guarantee supplies.[79][80]

• La nueva diplomacia económica española. In 2018 a newspaper revealed that the book includes the plagiarism of six other people's texts.[94] The suspicion was made extensive to his doctoral thesis, whose authorship was questioned.[95]
• Manual de resistencia. The authorship of this work is in doubt because Sánchez, who appears as the sole author, states in the prologue that "This book is the result of long hours of conversation with Irene Lozano, writer, thinker, politician and friend. She gave a literary form to the recordings, giving me a decisive help".[96] The mentioned writer, for her part, affirmed that "I made the book, but the author is the president".[97]