Sánchez's strategy to buy time and avoid responsibility for the blackout

Yesterday, Spain experienced its first major power outage in its history, but there is no indication that this will lead to self-criticism from the government.

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Sánchez has already chosen scapegoats: the 'private operators'

In 2022, Pedro Sánchez said there would be no blackouts in Spain, accusing the "right" and the "far right" of fueling that possibility. More than 24 hours after the blackout began, Sánchez has yet to explain the causes, he did not want to rule out a cyberattack and has pointed the finger at "private operators", which already points to part of the government's strategy to avoid its responsibility in this serious event, unprecedented in Spain, with one of its favorite techniques: looking for scapegoats to blame for what happened.

Red Eléctrica de España has ruled out a cyberattack

Despite Sánchez's statements, this morning Red Eléctrica Española, which owns the entire transmission grid in Spain, has ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack: "since yesterday, we have had the collaboration of Incibe [National Cybersecurity Institute], the CNI [National Intelligence Center], and this morning we have been able to conclude that there has indeed been no type of intrusion in the control systems of Red Eléctrica that could have caused the incident", said the director of Services for Operation of Red Eléctrica de España, Eduardo Prieto.

An electricity supply managed by a government-controlled company

Given this, why doesn't Sánchez rule out a cyberattack? Because the other possibility, a failure, would leave the government in a very bad position. In fact, although the Prime Minister points to "private operators" and states that he will hold them accountable, the management of the electricity supply in Spain depends on Red Eléctrica de España, in which the State holds a 20% stake through SEPI (State Industrial Participation Company).

In fact, the president of Red Eléctrica de España was appointed by the Sánchez government in February 2020. For the position, Sánchez chose Beatriz Corredor, a member of the PSOE executive at the time of her appointment as president of Red Eléctrica and who was Minister of Housing under Zapatero's socialist government. Red Eléctrica is one of the many companies colonized by the PSOE, which has become a veritable placement agency for socialist leaders in state-controlled institutions and companies.

Red Eléctrica was warned that this could happen but ruled it out

It should be noted that Red Eléctrica was warned that this could happen. In February 2025, Ernst & Young audited that company, warning of the following in the midst of the process of closing nuclear power plants by decision of the Sánchez government:

"Greater difficulty in system operation: reduction in firm power and balancing capacities and greater risk of operational incidents that could affect supply. This leads to potential reputational impacts."

In light of the controversy surrounding this report, Red Eléctrica published a message on Twitter on April 9 stating: "There is no risk of a blackout. Red Eléctrica guarantees the supply."

In fact, Sánchez has again criticized nuclear power plants today, saying that "they are a problem", but this blackout has not been suffered by France, which has 56 nuclear power plants, nor by South Korea (25), nor by the US (93) nor by Canada (19), but by Spain, which has 7 and is in the process of closing. In fact, the lack of response from the few Spanish nuclear power plants to yesterday's blackout is due to the government itself. In February, El Periódico de la Energía reported that the taxes imposed by the Sánchez government were leaving all Spanish nuclear power plants out of the game.

In fact, on April 19, El Debate published: "Spain disconnects most of its nuclear power plants during Easter due to the "disproportionate" tax burden". Because of this, according to the media, "nuclear power is barely accounting for 7% of generation these days, when the usual rate is around 20%."

France, with 56 nuclear power plants, had to rescue Spain after the blackout

This became known nine days before the blackout. Yesterday, France began sending electricity to Spain to mitigate the blackout, thanks to which the northern regions of Spain (except Galicia) were the first to recover. Sánchez says that nuclear power plants "are a problem" after France, the country with the most nuclear power plants in Europe, got us out of the mess.

So, we have the essential ingredient for the blackout to happen again: a government that puts its ideology above reality and refuses to address Spain's electricity supply problems with a minimum of sanity, obsessed with closing nuclear power plants even after the serious events of yesterday. The Spanish people will end up paying a huge economic, political, and social price because of a left that refuses to acknowledge its mistakes even after causing a disaster like yesterday's.

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Photo: La Moncloa.