A few hours after the US business media platform Bloomberg severely criticised the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez for being "on vacation with his family" and not appearing before the country although the coronavirus situation in the Spanish state has brought "more bad news" every day this week, the Socialist leader has cancelled his summer plans. Sánchez has returned from Andalusia three days earlier than expected and is already in the Moncloa government palace, according to digital newspaper La Información.
Until today, the Spanish PM was on holiday in the Doñana National Park, in Andalusia, after previously spending a few days in a luxury resort in Lanzarote that also aroused much criticism.
His holidays have coincided with continuing increases in coronavirus infections in Spain. Yesterday, the country's health ministry announced 7,039 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in a day. "Things are not going well, we can't let the transmission continue," warned epidemiologist Fernando Simón.
"Spain's mounting coronavirus crisis is met by government silence", reports Bloomberg
The PM's controversial vacation
In early August, the Spanish prime minister chose to spend a week on vacation at a Canary Islands estate which king Hussein of Jordan had given to Spain's Juan Carlos I, now the king emeritus. This is the La Mareta estate on the island of Lanzarote, which includes a mansion-palace built in the 1970s by the king of Jordan. The complex has been used for years as an occasional residence for the Spanish royal family on vacation, and it had also been used by former Spanish PMs José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
After a brief interlude to fly to Mallorca and have an audience with king Felipe VI, Sánchez returned to Lanzarote and extended his stay for more days than planned. The PM then shifted location to the Palacio de las Marismillas, a state-owned heritage palace located in the Doñana National Park, in Andalusia. While in the southern Spanish region, Sánchez attended a memorial service in Matalascañas (Huelva), where he was booed by some members of the public with cries of "out, out" and "shameless", although there were also some who applauded him.
Video: Pedro Sánchez, jeered on a visit in Andalusia
Bloomberg's thumbs down to Sánchez
The Bloomberg article states that the Spanish government "appears to be in denial" about the worsening of the coronavirus in the country, highlighting the failure of the Spanish prime minister to front up to the people. "Although Sánchez has continued to take part in regular crisis meetings remotely, his public silence is a far cry from the weekly speeches he gave at the height of the pandemic, when he went as far as saying Spain was at war. At the time, the government organized daily news conferences and on occasions even two in a single day, to discuss the virus,” it reports.
The business news provider does not hesitate to show the contrast between Pedro Sánchez's management and that of the Italian government. "Sanchez’s handling of the pandemic has been widely panned while Italy, which served as model for Spain in being the first to head into lockdown, appears to have a better handle on the crisis. Both countries are in deep recessions and had to try to balance the need to keep people safe with the desire to try and capitalize on a lucrative summer season,” it adds.