Pedro Sánchez closed this Friday the electoral round of Jordi Wild on 'The Wild Project' with one of the most emphatic answers of the interview. Asked about José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, investigated in the Plus Ultra case, the President of the Government responded "I would put my hand in the fire for José Luis". The PSOE candidate also spoke about the conviction of his former minister José Luis Ábalos, the prior warnings before the massive entry into Ceuta and the resignation of Óscar Puente after the Urda railway accident.
The conversation was published on the first day of the 29N campaign, after the interviews with Ada Colau and Alberto Núñez Feijóo and after Santiago Abascal's no-show. Wild began by asking him why he wants to continue in La Moncloa after eight years. Sánchez spoke of vocation and his grandparents, who could not read or write, and said that his daughters have had to leave places where insults against him were chanted. Wild reproached him that all parties contribute to the tension. The president defended that "polarization is asymmetrical" and pointed to the political leaders who encourage these insults.
Sánchez endorses Puente's resignation and maintains his version of the Ceuta warnings
"It is evident, Jordi, that failures and errors were committed," Sánchez admitted about the railway. He defended the investment made in the Madrid-Seville line and acknowledged that two high-speed accidents like those in Adamuz and Urda are unacceptable. The two tragedies left 116 dead. The president considered Puente's resignation appropriate, announced on November 3 in Congress, and dodged the question of whether he would have dismissed him. Among the measures he cited are a safety audit on the line, more training and rest for workers, and an investment of nearly 19,000 million euros until 2030 in network maintenance and security.
Regarding Ceuta, Sánchez assured that the Government had detected an increase in arrivals in the days prior to July 30 and 31 and that it reinforced the border based on what it was observing. "We did not receive any warning from any intelligence service," he stated. The documents published by La Moncloa show that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) communicated via WhatsApp to the Government Delegation, on the 29th, that a call to cross by sea and over the fence was circulating on social media. That same day it sent an urgent note to Moroccan intelligence. The Executive's position is that these communications did not allow anticipating the magnitude of the entry and that the CNI did not issue a formal alert through the chain of command.
"I do not have information to accuse an entire government of this," he said when asked about Morocco. A report by the National Police collected evidence that Moroccan gendarmes guided groups of migrants, while the director general of the Police specified that the document did not attribute the planning to Rabat. Sánchez also defended that he continued working from an official residence and that, in his opinion, the ministries already had the necessary mechanisms activated when he was asked why he took so long to convene the National Security Council. The National Court has summoned the former Government delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, as an investigated party for next Wednesday the 18th.
The conversation about the border has given way to a broader disagreement about immigration. Wild has insisted on the pressure on public services and on the changes that residents perceive in their neighborhoods. Sánchez has recalled that his grandfather emigrated to Germany to work and has acknowledged that the left "does not pay enough attention" to integration. He has advocated for opening regular channels of arrival, cooperating with countries of origin, and funding city councils and autonomous communities so they can handle reception. He has also linked immigration to employment and pensions in an aging Spain. The National Institute of Statistics predicts that, if current trends continue, population growth in the coming decades will depend on international migration.
From "tremendous disappointment" with Ábalos to the defense of Zapatero
Wild asked him if Ábalos and Santos Cerdán had been his friends. "I thought so", Sánchez replied, who described as a "tremendous disappointment" what he learned when the recordings of his former minister became public. He maintained that he was unaware of his conduct when he removed him from Transport and from the PSOE's Organization Secretariat in 2021. Regarding Koldo García, he defended that he had much less dealings with him, even when the interviewer read him old praises he dedicated to him on social media. The Supreme Court sentenced Ábalos to 24 years and three months in prison and García to 19 years and eight months in June in the mask case. Cerdán, who succeeded Ábalos in the party leadership, is still under investigation for alleged rigging in public works contracts.
The president denied having met with Leire Díez as head of the Executive and maintained that the PSOE was unaware that the intermediaries it hired ended up paying her. The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard estimated at 43,225 euros the funds from the party that reached the former militant through two intermediaries. Sánchez has left open the possibility that the PSOE may take legal action if it is proven that it was harmed by an illicit activity. Judge Santiago Pedraz has extended the investigation until June 2027.
With Zapatero, he has been more emphatic. "I believe in his innocence," he said after assuring that the former president never asked him about Plus Ultra or any other company. He defended that the rescue of airlines during the pandemic was done through loans and expressed his confidence in Zapatero also when Wild asked him about the jewels seized in his office. The National Court is investigating, on the one hand, the alleged influence peddling in the Plus Ultra case and, in a separate piece, possible tax and smuggling crimes related to those jewels.
The 184,000 promised homes and the amnesty archives
Wild raised the case of a 25-year-old who earns 1,300 euros a month and wants to become independent without help from his parents. Sánchez admitted that it is difficult and described the housing situation as "very bad". He advocated building more protected housing, streamlining procedures with a reform of the land law, and regulating seasonal and room rentals. There he placed a discrepancy with the Broad Front and Podemos on the land law, while he defended the rent caps applied in Catalonia against the policy of the Community of Madrid. According to data from the deposits of new contracts, between the first quarter of 2024 and the second of 2026, the average price rose by 0.7% in the strained Catalan areas and by 11% in those that remained outside the regulation.
The most concrete point came when Wild brought up the commitment to enable 184,000 public and affordable rental homes during the legislature, announced in December 2023. Sánchez placed the number of homes delivered or in process between 120,000 and 130,000. When asked again, he did not give the number of occupied flats and defended the launch of the public company CASA47. The interview is published one day after the Congress's Permanent Deputation endorsed the decree that extends certain rental contracts and limits their increases, and rejected the one that proposed extending these extensions indefinitely.
"Indeed, I changed my mind," he acknowledged regarding the amnesty. He recalled that he supported Article 155 in 2017 and recounted that, after the procés ruling, a conversation with healthcare workers in a Catalan hospital made him realize the extent to which coexistence had deteriorated. He also admitted that the fragmentation of Congress after the 2023 elections forced him to negotiate a majority. He defended the parliamentary agreements with EH Bildu to advance social measures and, regarding Pablo Iglesias, attributed the coalition pact to the repeat election of 2019. In July of that year, he had said on 'Al Rojo Vivo' that Iglesias's presence in the Government was the "main stumbling block." In January 2020, he appointed him second vice president.
In that review, he also defended the Spanish position on Western Sahara and referred the repeal of the gag law, pending due to the dissolution of the Cortes, to the next legislature. In the end, Wild asked him to define his rivals. Sánchez called Ada Colau an "activist" and Feijóo a "20th-century conservative." To Abascal, who canceled his interview, he advised changing tailors because his jackets are "very tight." Looking at the camera, he called for mobilization on 29N to achieve a progressive majority that can act on housing.
Contact
We are listening. Get in touch.
