Former deputy director of El País reveals Pedro Sánchez's pressures on journalists

Freedom of speech and freedom of information are being threatened in Spain by a government mired in an authoritarian drift.

Seven uncomfortable questions that Sánchez tries to avoid with his attacks on the media
Sánchez wants to muzzle the media he does not control: we will not shut up!

The corruption cases affecting Pedro Sánchez's government, including the president and his personal entourage, have been answered by the government and the PSOE with attacks on judges and journalists in order to prevent them from investigating this corruption, a way of managing political power that is more similar to the socialist dictatorship of Venezuela than to the democratic countries of the European Union.

For months Sánchez has been announcing an "Action Plan for Democracy", a cynical title to control the media from power that is very reminiscent of when the communist dictatorship of East Germany described the Berlin Wall, created to turn that country into a huge prison, as an "anti-fascist protection wall".

This afternoon, Sánchez announced that tomorrow the Council of Ministers will approve this plan to control the media. He made the announcement in a message that begins with this statement: "In Spain, democracy is being besieged by disinformation campaigns, pressure on journalists and corruption." A statement that demonstrates the absolute lack of modesty of a politician who lies shamelessly, harasses independent media and tries to cover up socialist corruption through a plan to silence those who investigate it.

One of the most forceful responses to Sánchez's message came with a Twitter thread by David Alandete, former deputy director of El País - a newspaper close to the PSOE - and current correspondent for the newspaper Abc in the United States. Alandete was fired from El País as soon as Sánchez came to power, and in his response to Sánchez he points out the practices of the socialist leader that this journalist has been denouncing lately in some interviews:

"Pressure on journalists, like when the current president shouted at me to change a headline? Or when his press chief knew in advance the headlines we were going to publish in El País (years ago, I imagine no longer) and called to change them? Or like when one of his ministers told us about layoffs before they happened? Pressure like that of the famous PSOELab, which was dedicated to insulting critical journalists through profiles that we confirmed were financed by the party? Campaigns like the president going to a major Prisa shareholder to ask for a change in the editorial line?"

In his message, Alandate describes Sánchez's cabinet as "the government that has done the most damage to press freedom. A government that managed to align a media group in its favor and has not stopped pressuring the rest, now even with decrees. (And I hope my colleagues forgive me for considering that a headline should be decided by a president and not by the director of a newspaper)."

Regarding the things that Alandete has been revealing about Sánchez and his way of acting in politics, I recommend that you read the interview that the newspaper El Debate did with him last Saturday, in which he reveals that when they allied themselves with Carles Puigdemont, Sánchez and his government lost all interest in the Russian plot of the 2017 separatist coup in Catalonia. Not only have they lost interest in an issue that affects national security, but also, according to Alandete, they have dedicated themselves to boycotting the police and judicial investigation into this plot. Here you can listen to the journalist's words on this issue (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

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Photo: Europa Press.