Outcry in Pedro Sánchez's circle: 'It won't be enough, something else will have to be done'

The hours that passed between midnight and Thursday afternoon were the most agonizing that anyone can remember in PSOE. President Pedro Sánchez gathered his leadership team under the cover of night to order unified action in the face of the tsunami that was coming their way. As the details of the UCO report on Santos Cerdá were revealed, nervousness took hold of the President and his inner circle.

This wasn't like previous alleged corruption cases. Here, there were audios and messages that proved the involvement of the President's right-hand man in kickbacks and various irregularities. This time, there was no choice but to act.

For hours, Sánchez considered drastic solutions with his closest team to get out of the quagmire. He considered triggering a government crisis, and even evaluated the possibility of calling elections in August. But Sánchez himself ruled it out. 

Pressure on Sánchez

Apologize, announce an external audit, and reshape the party's executive committee. This was Sánchez's response, whose intention was to use the crisis to assert himself against PP. We apologize, unlike others, was the message he sent to the public.

President Pedro Sánchez and his inner circle believe they've stopped the bleeding, which was the most urgent matter. But as the hours have passed, optimism has cooled. In Moncloa's inner circle, they're no longer sure, and they've warned the President that it won't be enough and that in the coming days, more drastic measures will have to be taken.

Among other things, because information keeps trickling out after the President's appearance. The latest, published by El Confidencial, is that the Guardia Civil's report points to irregular financing by PSOE. This is something the right had always hinted at and that the socialists had denied in every possible way.

Irregular financing

This threatens to blow up Ferraz's official narrative, which always attributes scandals to individual excesses. Just yesterday, the first thing Sánchez did was to disavow Santos Cerdán ("we made a mistake by trusting him," he said). But irregular financing would show that these aren't isolated acts but rather structural corruption.

If the information that keeps coming out continues to widen the gap, Sánchez will have no choice but to listen to his inner circle and take another step. The next move could be a government crisis, while calling early elections would be the last resort. 

It's significant that even the left-leaning media, which fervently supported Sánchez, are now also raising the need for more radical changes. The most pessimistic suggest that what has come out now could be just the tip of the iceberg. To make matters worse, the crisis has caught PSOE amid an internal rebellion by the barons.