Three politicians from Germany’s establishment CDU and SPD parties have been arrested for allegedly taking part in a smuggling network which is believed to have assisted wealthy foreigners—mainly Chinese and citizens of Arab countries—to obtain permanent residence permits illegally, in most cases for six-figure sums.
North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens), in response to an information request on the case submitted by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) parliamentary group, named Jens Bröke of the center-left SPD and Werner Stump of the center-right CDU as having been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from the smuggling network.
The accused, Limbach explained, are said to have “helped a large number of nationals from non-EU and non-Schengen countries to enter and permanently reside in Germany over a long period in return for payments, mostly in the six-figure range.”
Bröke, who works on the SPD’s district board in the town of Düren, formerly served as the SPD’s managing director of the Heinsberg and Euskirchen sub-districts. Stump, on the other hand, previously served as the district administrator in the Rhein-Erft district from 1999 to 2013, and now operates as the co-managing director of the VSH Villa Sophienhöhe Hotel & Restaurant company, which investigators are honing in on.
In 2017, Stump, together with Chinese partners, founded the “German-Chinese Trade OHG,” which in 2020 went on to acquire an almost 95% stake in VSH Villa Sophienhöhe Hotel, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeigerreported.
The second CDU politician has so far yet to be named. Apart from the politicians, several lawyers and an employee in the civil service are said to have been involved with the smuggling network, Limbach explained. The accused, the justice minister stressed, are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
According to Stump’s lawyer Frank Leswal, authorities initially targeted his client because he had “been in contact with one of the main accused lawyers.”
“Our client never had any knowledge or even an inkling of any criminal smuggling activities,” Leswal insisted, adding that Stump is “cooperating with investigative authorities.”
The CDU at this stage has declined to address the accusations against its members, citing ongoing investigations.
The SPD in the Düren district, in contrast, said that it was “shocked by the serious allegations,” and added that it “expects that Jens Bröker will cooperate immediately and fully with the investigative authorities.”
“If the allegations are confirmed, Jens Bröker has no place in the ranks of the Social Democrats,” the party said.
News of CDU and SDU politicians’ alleged involvement in the smuggling network comes less than two weeks after Federal Police and the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office conducted large-scale raids across eight German states, searching 200 properties associated with suspected members of the criminal network.
During the sweeps, some 210,000 euros in cash and “extensive evidence” related to the case were seized, police say.
Police have arrested 10 people, while the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office has launched investigations against another 170—38 alleged members of the network and 147 believed to have obtained residence permits illegally.
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany. katholische.de/YouTube
The bishop of Trier has said that he would not participate in the March for Life because abortion is a “sensitive” and complex matter, citing “a woman’s right to self-determination.”
In an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk on April 29, Bishop Stephan Ackermann was asked about the recent March for Life in Munich, which the interviewer claimed attracts “right-wing extremists,” including from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party.
“I would not take part in this march for life,” Ackermann said.
“The issue at stake, namely striking a balance between a woman’s right to self-determination and the right to life of the unborn child, is such a sensitive matter that … any kind of aggressiveness, even in terms of the presentation on this point, is out of the question for me,” he said, claiming that strong pro-life advocacy allegedly “does not do justice to the sensitivity and complexity” of abortion, which is the violent destruction of totally helpless unborn children.
The Catholic Church has always taught that abortion is a grave sin, in accordance with the Fifth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.”
“Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the Catechism states. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”
Ackermann also implicitly defended German’s abortion regime, which effectively allows abortion on demand for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. He told Deutschlandfunk that the current legal situation has contributed to “societal peace,” while failing to mention that around 100,000 unborn children are killed in Germany every year through abortion.
The Deutschlandfunk interview addressed the issue of the German Bishops Conference’s official condemnation of the AfD for its alleged promotion of “ethnic nationalism.” At the same time, the bishops’ conference failed to condemn the left-wing parties of the current German government, who support the killing of the unborn, are considering decriminalizing abortion, recently moved to restrict pro-life advocacy in front of abortion facilities, and abolished the German advertising ban on abortion in 2022.
Ackermann is a staunch proponent of the heretical German Synodal Way and recently hosted an ecumenical pro-LGBT “queer” church service, in which he claimed Catholic teaching on sexuality is responsible for “injustice done to people.”
He voted for declarations of the Synodal Way claiming that homosexuality is not sinful, “intersex and transgender” people should be admitted to “all ordained ministries,” and women should be “ordained” as deacons and potentially priests and bishops.
The bishop of Trier is not the first of the German episcopate to deviate from the Church’s clear and absolute condemnation of abortion. In a discussion held in a brewery in March, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers called the current law allowing abortion up to 12 weeks a “viable compromise.”
It’s really easy to think that the whole world is like home. I live in Central Florida, so warming seems like a threat. In the summer, it’s hot enough to threaten my ability to play golf, and it’s “hydrate or die.” Any warmer and I won’t be able to swear and beat the ground with sticks. Then this week I visited New Lanark, Scotland.
The woolen mill of this World Heritage Site is extremely proud of the fact that all its electricity comes from renewable sources that supposedly have small carbon footprints. It’s quite easy for them, since they are situated on a steep section of the River Clyde, allowing for ready development of hydro power. And Scotland is quite windy, with proliferating wind farms supply forty percent of all electricity in the country.
When I left the mill for my tour bus, I made certain that I was wearing a windproof three-layer outfit and a warm cap, since the temperature in late April was projected to reach a sultry high of fifty degrees. The wind chill wasn’t reported, but gloves were necessary if I was to be outdoors for long. The mill tour guide seemed to be caught flat-footed when I asked her if all this emphasis on “green” energy was designed to keep Scotland cold. Her startled laugh spoke volumes.
Most of the Karens of Klimate Katastrophe completely neglect the northern (or far southern) climes in their nattering. While various tropical and subtropical areas might have concerns with warmer temperatures, much of the civilized world is actually located in areas where an increase in average temperature might not have such awful effects as are routinely advertised. Florida’s upper crust, who can afford coastal vacation homes made possible by federal flood insurance, might find their property falling into the sea. Ditto for the California coastal elites. The rest of us won’t see much more than dramatic pictures at 6:30 and 11:00.
People in the upper Midwest will be thrilled as winter blizzards diminish. They may have a shorter ice fishing season, but will exchange that for longer growing seasons with fewer parka days. For those who don’t wish to board a giant aluminum cloud for the trip across the pond to experience this, an alternative is readily available. Just get on a floating hotel and cruise the Inside Passage to Alaska. It’s a beautiful trip, and Juneau is the same degree of northern latitude as the Isle of Mull, where I am currently writing. Yesterday the snow level on Ben More was below three thousand feet.
All this dramatic picture illustrates a simple fact: People adapt. If we don’t, we die. People who live in cold climes wear heavier clothing for thermal protection than Floridians. My golfing buddy’s SPF2 mesh tee shirt won’t be much use in Scotland, or Alaska, or Northern Canada. But if temperatures warm, those areas will be much more habitable. People will move northward (or southward down under). Such migrations are a fact of history. Eric the Red named the largest North Atlantic island “Greenland” simply because it was green, and a good place for farming. It didn’t stay that way because climate change froze it, just as it has done in multiple cycles since the second millennium BC.
Climate is always changing. Man has nothing to do with this simple fact. Our paltry contribution of carbon dioxide will raise the temperature of the earth by about the same amount that the period at the end of this sentence will block the light from your computer screen. It didn’t begin to rise much until long after warming began at the end of the Little Ice Age about two hundred years ago. If we achieve “net zero,” we may actually see a large part of the green on the earth disappear, since carbon dioxide is essential to all plant life. If, on the other hand, we encourage its rise, then plants will grow more readily in arid climates, allowing deserts to bloom like roses.
Space prevents a full discussion of the carbon footprints of “green” structures such as wind turbines, EVs, and other “environmentally conscious” items. In short, they are not green. All we have to do is to consider the fact that clouds, made of nothing but water, are at least a hundred times more potent modulators of climate. And the modeling of cloud dynamics is at present much of a black art.
The very idea that mankind can predict or control the climate is an ultimate act of hubris. The pursuit of climate modification is, rather, a religion, whose sole value inures to the person who declares what penance the rest of us must pay in order to pacify the demigods of green “virtue.” It is a fool’s errand, far more expensive to us in taxes and loss of freedom than any imagined benefit. We can and will adapt, regardless. My proper response to those who choose to be my “better” and command my behavior is not printable in this location. It is time for us to demand that they go away and leave us alone.
Globalist poster boy, former Rothschild banker, French President Emmanuel Macron is on a crusade, warmongering for better poll numbers, and if he has to threaten the use of France’s nuclear arsenal in the process, so be it.
In the run-up to June, where there will be at once a European Election and the Olympic Summer Games in Paris, Macron seems to be shying away from his numerous domestic problems and focusing on a deranged foreign policy where he envisions France to be a major planetary force that it has long ceased to be.
Trailing the conservative opposition in all polls badly, Macron took the ultimate grandstanding step of putting France’s nuclear weapons should ‘on the table.’
‘Le Petit Roi’ was interviewed by a group of newspapers on Sunday and drew heavy fire from political opponents.
The ex-IS terrorist is currently fighting against his prison conditions at the local court in Regensburg. Wikimedia Commons , Johanning, CC-BY-SA-3.0
Arrogance flourishes when nourished by weakness. Consider the impudence of the Islamists who have been allowed to colonize Germany. After drawing the attention of the authorities by assaulting his girlfriend, Islamic State supporter Abdulhadi B. received a 5-year sentence back in 2018. Here’s how he enriched Germany’s multicultural tapestry:
The charges were publicity for IS, attempted incitement to manslaughter and assault. […] In addition that he recruited suicide bombers, he also planned an explosives attack and the recruitment of a seven-year-old boy as a child soldier.
Now he is in court complaining about prison accommodations and demanding €144,000 to compensate him for being incarcerated.
The Syrian sees himself as a victim and is prepared to leave Germany if he receives the sum demanded.
Can’t they just send him back to Syria with a shoeprint on the seat of pants? No, that would be insensitive:
Deportation to Syria is out of the question for the German authorities due to the ongoing conflicts and the insecure situation in the country.
As a result of moonbattery-induced weakness and Islamic colonization, Germany will soon be comparably insecure.
Britain is broken. Can it still be saved? Addressing the New Culture Forum’s annual conference, Richard Tice, Leader of the Reform Party, lays out how his party plans to save Britain and return it to a path of prosperity, security and harmony. (New Culture Forum Conference – 20 April 2024)
A trans-identified male inmate serving three life sentences for crimes against women has filed a discrimination lawsuit in an attempt to be transferred into the general population among female prisoners. Thomas Preston Lamb, also known as Michelle Renee Lamb, is currently detained in a women’s facility in Topeka, Kansas, but has been kept separate from the female inmates — an arrangement Lamb deems unacceptable.
Lamb, 82, alleges he is being discriminated against by the staff of Topeka Correctional Facility and the Kansas Department of Corrections on the grounds that he is being held in restricted housing instead of being allowed to frequently interact with incarcerated women.
Lamb first filed his legal claim against Governor Laura Kelly, Topeka Correctional Facility, and the Kansas Department of Corrections last November, and a ruling is expected to be reached by early May.
Authorities at Topeka Correctional Facility (TCF) made the decision to separate Lamb from the female prison population due to both his history as a sex offender and his conduct while in prison. Lamb, who was quietly transferred into the female prison estate in January of 2023, has repeatedly ignored no-contact orders and has been sexually harassing female correctional officers. On at least one occasion, he was charged with lewd conduct with a female inmate.
A man convicted of multiple violent crimes against women has been quietly transferred to a women's prison in Topeka, Kansas.
Thomas Lamb murdered one woman because she called him a 'man,' then blamed his female alter-ego for the slaying.https://t.co/xtmMmfsiwf
According to a report by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), the warden at Topeka Correctional Facility had intended to house the convicted killer among the general population of female inmates, but became concerned after he refused to answer questions about his crimes during an intake evaluation used to assess a prisoner’s psychological condition.
Prison officials said Lamb’s refusal to answer questions about his past was “worrying” because his “most serious crimes are violent actions specifically against women, and because this would be the first time in 50 years that Plaintiff would be co-habitating with women … Plaintiff’s refusal to answer was a red flag.”
The report also explained that Lamb’s security risk classification, which labels him a potential threat to the women held at TCF, was due to the nature of his crimes and the potential risk to other inmates. Lamb was then placed in restrictive housing with the aim of eventually integrating him into the general female population.
However, Lamb’s security risk status remains in place because his conduct has been “predatory towards another resident and manipulative towards security staff,” an allegation that Lamb has disputed in a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) complaint.
Lamb has had a disciplinary report for violating a rule against lewd activity by giving a female inmate “a hug that continue[d] through another squeeze — appearing to be a ‘double hug.’”
Lamb additionally had repeatedly asked a corrections officer if his genitals “looked good and natural” as a result of the surgery he had, and posed questions to a different officer about her own anatomy and sexual habits. The ongoing sexual remarks led to an order from supervisor Major Dona Hook that Lamb must always be escorted by two female prison officers.
In a hand-written complaint dated September 2023, Lamb argued that his designation as a security risk, established just two months after he was transferred into the women’s prison in January of last year, constituted a “hate crime” against him.
“This is a grievance against everyone involved in placing me on OSR [other security risk] and HR [housing restriction] status, and keeping me on this status for what is now six months,” Lamb wrote. “I request I be placed on general population status immediately, and all information used to place me on this OSR status be removed from my file.”
In a separate grievance letter filed the same month, Lamb claimed that the restrictions placed on him were so “severe” that he had been suffering from anxiety, had developed rashes and elevated blood pressure, and was at risk of death by heart attack or stroke. He also stated he had begun experiencing chronic diarrhea as a result of his lack of access to the women’s general population.
“I have had numerous bouts of diarrhea due to my high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress caused by this toxic and restrictive environment,” Lamb wrote. “I’m being treated as if I’m public enemy number one here at TCF, being escorted by two officers all the time. I feel miserable and wake up crying at night. I’m denied the most basic need, especially for us females: the need to have close contact and relationships with other females.”
Court records indicate that Lamb had developed a relationship with a troubled 30-year old woman with a history of disruptive behavior. This situation had caused Lamb to “repeatedly break restrictive housing no-contact rules and orders.”
Prison officials also noted that Lamb had already been allowed multiple exceptions to housing rules, including permission to buy makeup and earrings. Since claiming a female identity in 2006, Lamb has been provided with “female undergarments” by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) while incarcerated, with the intimate clothing described as “therapeutic for Lamb’s gender dysphoria.” He has also been provided with estrogen and testosterone-blocking drugs.
In response to Lamb’s grievances, warden David McCabe noted that Lamb was being offered time out of his cell, time outdoors, group interactions, and “full access to medical and mental health practitioners,” and urged Lamb to “engage in positive interactions and activities” in order to work towards having his risk status removed.
Thomas Preston ‘Michelle Renee’ Lamb, Kansas Department of Corrections
Leading up to his November lawsuit, Lamb had been threatening prison officials in an attempt to increase his access to the female prison population.
In July of 2023, Lamb sent three letters to TCF Reentry Coordinator Angela Golightley, and the supervisor for his Unit Team Manager Linda Hull-Viera, who had filed the disciplinary report against him. In the letters, Lamb complained that his health was seriously impaired by his restrictions and offered an out-of-court settlement to his demands.
If the administrators did not comply with his wishes, Lamb threatened to “send the ACLU a copy of my lawsuit.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been behind multiple lawsuits across the United States which have resulted in male rapists and criminals being transferred into women’s prisons.
The letters expressed that if Golightley removed Lamb’s security risk status, expunged the history from his record, supported him for a parole release within the year, and transferred him into the general population, “it will all go away.”
Lamb, in a sinister tone, encouraged Golightley to personally meet with him: “Come see me so we can come to an agreement, and this can all stop now. It’s up to you.” He further threatened to pass information about his lawsuit on to a reporter, Blaise Mesa, for Kansas City Beacon, “so he can do the story he wants to do… It will not make you look good. I have his word.”
In his lawsuit, Lamb is being represented by Legal Director at the ACLU of Kansas, Sharon Brett. In recent months, her listed biography on the ACLU Kansas website was made hidden behind a login and password prompt.
Lamb, who is described as “female” in the state Criminal Justice Information System and referred to as a “transgender female” in court records, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Karen Sue Kemmerly, a 24 year-old student at the University of Kansas-Missouri, around December 5, 1969.
Lamb murdered Kemmerly after she commented he was a “handsome man,” and told him he was “very capable sexually,” which sent him into a violent rage as he saw himself as a woman. Lamb strangled the woman to death, and left her nude corpse in a cornfield. The young student’s body was found approximately five days after her death on December 7.
In addition to Kemmerly, Lamb was also convicted on charges of kidnapping 18-year-old Patricia Ann Childs on January 15, 1970. Childs was returned to her family after her father paid out a $3,500 ransom demanded by Lamb. During the ordeal, Lamb bound Childs’ hands and raped her, according to court documents, though he was never formally charged for the sexual assault.
The Wichita Eagle, 19 May 1970
Lamb was ultimately convicted of two counts of kidnapping and one count of first degree murder, and is now serving three consecutive life sentences in prison. While in prison, Thomas Preston Lamb began going by Michelle Renee Lamb, and in July 2006, filed for a legal name change.
Yet despite claiming to be a woman and undergoing genital surgery and hormone supplements, Lamb’s record of violence against women indicates a disturbing pattern of sadistic sexual pathology.
On February 25, 1970, Lamb was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Lamb, who waived his right to a jury trial, was interviewed by Dr. Joseph Satten, a psychiatrist specializing in criminology at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, who filmed the exchange. The video was shown in court as evidence to support an insanity plea. Before playing the recording for the spectators, Judge Harold Riggs warned of “vulgar and obscene” content.
“In my opinion, the defendant’s thinking was severely disturbed at the time of the crimes and he did not have the normal knowledge of the nature and quality of his acts alleged to have been committed,” Satten testified. “Now, as to the second element, as to knowing whether they’re wrong, I’m a little more uncertain.”
Lamb told Satten that he “thought he was a girl” when he carried out the crimes against the two women. It was Satten’s view that Lamb was “intelligent” and aware of the crimes he committed. However, he emphasized “peculiarities” in his personality.
At times, during the course of the kidnappings, there must have been some awareness that what he was doing was wrong. But during both of the kidnappings, he was in a peculiar state of mind in which he felt himself to be a girl,” Satten said.
The doctor went on to blame the “female version” of Lamb for the crimes, insinuating that the “male version” of Lamb was not mentally present during the time of the offenses.
“Maybe ‘she’ knew the nature and quality of it, maybe ‘she’ knew what was being done was wrong, but the normal Thomas Lamb, I believe, probably did not,” Satten added.
The doctor continued that Lamb had an “overriding preoccupation that all of his problems revolved around the need to have a sex reassignment operation.” In a seemingly contradictory statement, Satten said that Lamb did not hold prejudices against women, but believed “they have all the advantages.”
Olathe News, 27 May 1970
The convicted killer has repeatedly used the legal system to his advantage. In a 2017 motion filed by Lamb against the KDOC, he alleged that his Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment were being violated. Lamb had demanded “more comprehensive treatment of [his] gender dysphoria, access to more female items in prison, recognition of [his] name change, and transfer to a female-only prison facility.”
Lamb’s original 2017 request to be transferred to a women’s correctional facility was initially denied by District Judge Eric Melgren. In the decision, it was stated that “Lamb is not entitled to transfer to a female facility.”
He continued, referring to Lamb with feminine pronouns: “Thomas was ordered to serve three life sentences so that he would never kill or hurt another woman again. Thomas is now Michelle, but Michelle is still a convicted kidnapper and murderer of women, and the justification for her sentence has not changed.”
Migrants are useful for menial jobs, according top Belgian justice minister Paul Van Tigchelt.
“Who looks after our elderly? Who will lay my water pipe? Who cleans my windows at home?” he told a podcast host.
The minister then apologised for his attempted defence of migration but is still facing criticism.
Asked by the host of podcast Talks With Charly if it was possible to stop migration in a country such as Belgium, Van Tigchelt said: “Of course that is not possible.
“It’s neither necessary nor desirable.”
Then he added: “Who takes care of our elderly? Who will lay my water pipe? Who cleans my windows at home?”
That did not seem to go down well with show host Charly Badibanga: “No, wait, I know what you mean, but …”.
At which the minister interjected: “Suppress migration and our economy will grind to a halt.”
“Ok, that’s better,” Badibanga replied.
Van Tigchelt went on to name a number of successful people in Belgium of migrant decent such as movie directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, as well as former footballers Marouane Fellaini, Vincent Kompany and Romelu Lukaku, calling them examples of “the richness of migration”.
Badibanga then returned to the minister’s earlier remarks: “Paul, I’m going to take a step back. I completely understand what you mean, but you said, ‘who cleans my windows at home?’ there’s no need for that.”
Van Tigchelt then apologised. “Sorry for expressing myself wrongly,” he said.
Belgium's Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt is facing calls to resign after footage emerged showing a man of Indian descent being brutally tortured in a Belgian prison in Antwerp over a period of several days. https://t.co/eJ2J2vN6Pi
Vlaams Belang politician Filip Dewinter said in a reaction on X, “Immigrants as wage slaves and as competitors for our low-skilled workers. Nothing has changed since the coal mines.”
Paul Van Tigchelt’s initial comments were reminiscent of those made in 2015 by TV personality Kelly Osbourne. She said on US talk show The View: “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet – Donald Trump?”
Some of Britain’s lower-grade universities are awarding educational visas to foreign students “indiscriminately” so they can benefit from their higher tuition fees, an immigration expert has claimed.
Robert Bates, who is research director at the Centre for Migration Control think tank, told The European Conservative that “the main function of many British universities now seems to be the distribution of British visas to foreign nationals.” He added:
It has long been known that the business model of several dozen low-quality institutions is predicated on admitting thousands of overseas students each year, who do not come to study, but instead see the tuition fees as a price worth paying for long-term residency in the UK.
Leaked Home Office figures obtained by The Daily Mail over the weekend show that more than a third of the 6,136 foreign students who went on to claim asylum last year were sponsored for study visas by just six educational institutions.
Bates told this publication that the news shows that “the dam has well and truly burst.” He said that unless government officials take “drastic action, including preventing many so-called universities from awarding visas at all, the problem will only get worse. Universities will carry on indiscriminately awarding places to ungenuine students.”
Conservative Party commentators have also called for the right to issue visas to foreign students to be restricted to the best-performing universities.
One of the universities highlighted in the Mailreport said in defence that “this issue is a result of the government’s asylum policy, which allows visa switching in a way that is outside the direct control of the universities concerned and is not a failing of the higher education sector.”
Higher education body Universities UK International added that in order to “recruit international students, universities must meet very high standards set by government.”
But Bates told The European Conservative that the problem lies with “left-wing faculties” who “do not care what overseas students do once in the UK. Their only concern is increasing the funds that they can direct toward nonsense research into British colonialism or gender studies.”
The Home Office described the “exploitation of our student visa route” as “unacceptable,” and said it has “introduced a package of measures to clamp down on abuse.” But it did not respond to calls for some universities to be stripped of the right to hand out student visas.
Speaking at Moncloa Palace Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced he would remain in post. Screen grab youtube
Spanish conservatives pulled no punches in their criticism of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez after the Spanish premier announced on Monday his intention to continue in office.
At a press conference on Monday, Sánchez said a mobilization of support from his Socialist party had convinced him to stay on as prime minister despite a new investigation being opened into his wife, Begoña Gómez, amid allegations of corruption.
Addressing the public following Sánchez’s announcement, the leader of Spain’s VOX party, Santiago Abascal, accused the prime minister of being an “angry, unleashed autocrat” whose “victimizing” theatrics had plunged Spain into an “international embarrassment of incalculable proportions.”
🇪🇸🔥 @Vox_es leader @Santi_ABASCAL lays into Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, describing him as an "angry, unleashed autocrat" whose "victimizing" theatrics have plunged Spain into an "international embarrassment of incalculable proportions." pic.twitter.com/NoFgPFBwKR
“I said yesterday that the decision made today by the President of the Government would be taken based exclusively on personal interests. I said this while taking into account our experience of the last five years, and I don’t think I was wrong,” Abascal told journalists.
He lamented the decision taken by Sánchez to continue, claiming it would result in the continuity of attacks against “unity, against co-existence, against the rule of law, the separation of powers, and against freedom of the press.”
“The worst for Sánchez is yet to come,” Abascal warned, “and we have to work to minimize the damage to the Spanish people and build a viable alternative. VOX has not stopped doing so with full intensity, exercising total opposition.”
Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch was arguably more scathing, accusing Sánchez and his family of “leading Spain into civil war” and claiming the prime minister planned to “go for the judges, for the free press, and for his political opposition.”
Spanish conservatives react angrily to Pedro Sánchez's announcement this morning confirming he will continue as PM.
MEP @HermannTertsch says Sánchez's attack on Spain's institutions is reminiscent of Cuban-style communism that will see him end up in "the trash heap of history." pic.twitter.com/gZ9LY0EeBT
“His Cuban/Venezuelan-style communist criminal project will have us on our knees. He will end up in the trash heap of history, the only place he belongs,” Tertsch added.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s center-right Partido Popular opposition, called for an election following Sánchez’s announcement.
“The only way to make a point in politics is to consult the Spanish people. Spain needs a new democratic government, with a president worthy of it and not the regime change that Pedro Sánchez intends to sneak in behind this whole play,” he said at his own press conference.
Spanish political analyst and conservative journalist Rubén Pulido said the ramifications of Sánchez’s decision to continue were not yet known.
“We will see what price the non-resignation of Pedro Sánchez has in the short and long term. After a pause in which we do not know what type of discussions have taken place, in a context of events that are not only detrimental to him but also to Spain.”
He claimed the prime minister now had “zero credibility” and “no respect at the international level,” adding that it was more important than ever to “fight for a change of direction.”
Sánchez’s opposition had claimed last week it was unlikely he would step down because his position as prime minister affords him certain legal protections.
The allegations against Sánchez’s wife, first reported by center-right news outlet El Confidencial, claim she met with the bosses of several private companies that went on to receive government funding or public contracts from Sánchez’s administration.
One example involves two meetings with Javier Hidalgo, the chief executive of a tourism holding company before Sánchez’s government granted the Hidalgo family’s airline, Air Europa, a taxpayer bailout of nearly €500 million.
Sánchez responded to the allegations on Thursday by accusing right-wing media outlets of doing the dirty work of his political opponents who he said were slinging mud to “dehumanize and delegitimize” him and his family.
