Óscar Puente, Spain's minister of transport, drew attention at the end of the summer break with a series of remarks that included a pointed jab at King Felipe VI, a call for early elections next summer and a claim that he could succeed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, according to a column by journalist Jesús Rivasés published in La Razón.
Rivasés wrote that it was hard to believe the remarks were entirely Puente's own initiative or a simple outburst brought on by the August heat. He suggested instead that they were trial balloons floated on Sánchez's behalf, with the prime minister, whom Puente has previously called the ultimate boss, later drawing his own conclusions from the public reaction.
Puente, who serves in Sánchez's cabinet, is known for combative social media posts and blunt public statements. Sánchez has led Spain's government since 2018 at the head of a coalition built around the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, or PSOE.
The comments came as Sánchez returned from a long holiday during which he made no public appearances, a choice Rivasés suggested may have been made to avoid being jeered. The government, meanwhile, remains under pressure over the migration crisis in Ceuta, one of two Spanish cities on the north coast of Africa, bordering Morocco.
Twenty-six days after the start of what Rivasés called an invasion, Sánchez convened Spain's National Security Council, the state body responsible for coordinating national security policy, and moved to appoint a single official to lead the government's response to the emergency, the column said.
Migration crisis in Ceuta
Rivasés wrote that, despite pledges from Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca to return migrants who had arrived in Ceuta, the process would take many months, and that a significant number were likely to remain on Spanish soil. Further crossings of the Strait of Gibraltar, he added, were only a matter of time.
He wrote that the crisis, in theory, puts PSOE in a difficult position, but that it also draws attention away from an unrelated corruption scandal engulfing the party.
Corruption cases in the background
That scandal, Rivasés noted, involves former transport minister José Luis Ábalos, his one-time aide Koldo García, party figure Leire Díez, and problems facing former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Rivasés also wrote that, for Sánchez, every crisis is an opportunity, an idea he attributed to Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's former White House chief of staff, who is known for arguing that a crisis should never go to waste.
Puente's remarks on the King
According to the column, Puente's sharp jab at Felipe VI, Spain's head of state since 2014, fed hopes among republican supporters for a referendum on the monarchy, even though such a vote has no place under Spain's Constitution. Rivasés wrote that Sánchez would not push the issue further, since he sees no electoral advantage in it, but would allow the debate to continue.
A possible successor from 2031
Puente also positioned himself as a potential successor to Sánchez, though he said this would not happen before 2031, since he expects Sánchez to remain prime minister until then. He also proposed holding general elections next summer, after Spain's regional and municipal elections.
'He who resists, wins'
Rivasés closed his column by invoking a line written by Camilo José Cela, the Spanish novelist and 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate who died in 2002: that in Spain, whoever resists, wins. According to Rivasés, Cela had the phrase mounted on an acrylic block that a bank distributed to its customers in the 1980s. That bank was later absorbed by a larger institution, he wrote, which itself was later swallowed by an even bigger one.
Rivasés wrote that it remained hard to believe Puente's remarks were simply his own idea and not another trial balloon, in a country where, so far, whoever resists still wins.
