Socialist Santos Cerdán in prison: a good day to remember the manifesto of shame

The government of Pedro Sánchez and his party have been attacking all investigations into their corruption scandals for over a year.

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On May 17 of last year, Sánchez dismissed the investigations into his wife, Begoña Gómez, stating: "there is no case, just mud." The socialist leader already knew that she was being officially investigated for corruption, but omitted this detail. Spanish socialists have been calling the investigations into these scandals "hoaxes" and "mud" for over a year and attacking the journalists and judges who have shed light on these corruption cases.

Undeterred by these attacks, good journalists and judges have continued their investigations, and as a result today the Supreme Court has sent the socialist Santos Cerdán to provisional prison. Cerdán was not just another socialist activist: until June 12, he was the secretary of organization of the PSOE, Sánchez's right-hand man in the party, and was one of the architects of his rise to power, as he served as a bridge with the Basque separatists of the PNV and Bildu to obtain their support. In the note published today by the Supreme Court, he is accused of possibly committing crimes of membership in a criminal organization, bribery, and influence peddling.

This is an important moment in Spain's recent history: Cerdán is the first person from Sánchez's inner circle to end up in prison for the corruption scandals that have been investigated by some independent media outlets and some judges. Today is a day to remember those good professionals in journalism and the judicial system, especially those who have suffered the most harassment for their investigations, such as journalist Ketty Garat. After learning of Cerdán's prison order, Garat stated: "We did our job against those who signed a manifesto against the judicial and media coup."

Today is a good day to remember that shameful pamphlet. The manifesto Garat refers to was published on April 26, 2024, in a pro-government media outlet, with this title: "Governments are elected at the polls. No to judicial and media coups". This manifesto stated the following:

"The attack by the far-right media and judicial system against the wife of the Prime Minister is a new attempt to subvert the popular will expressed at the ballot box through illicit means.

The campaign of hoaxes, falsehoods, and harassment against members of the last two coalition governments and other progressive and pro-independence forces, coordinated and financed by the political, media, business, and judicial right, attacks the very foundations of parliamentary democracy and leaves the rule of law defenseless.

The undersigned journalists invite civil society to join this manifesto and to mobilize on social media and in the streets against this anti-democratic outrage."

These shameful statements were intended to discredit journalists and judges investigating socialist scandals simply for doing their jobs, presenting them as anti-democrats and coup plotters for daring to remind everyone that the law applies to everyone, including the government and its partners.

Among the signatories of that manifesto were well-known leftists such as Silvia Intxaurrondo, Iñaki Gabilondo, Rosa María Artal, Maruja Torres, Ana Pardo de Vera, Gerardo Tecé, Manuel Rivas, Rosa Villacastín, and Antón Losada. Political activism has led some journalists to do scandalous things during Sánchez's term, such as shamefully attacking those who were simply fulfilling one of the obligations of journalism: monitoring political power. It is appreciated that they have been kind enough to leave their names for posterity in this manifesto of shame.

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Photo: PSOE. Pedro Sánchez and Santos Cerdán in a photo from a PSOE leadership meeting held on April 10, 2023.