Pedro Sánchez

Pedro Sánchez (born February 29, 1972, Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish politician who has been prime minister of Spain since 2018. He has been secretary-general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) since 2017 and previously held the office in 2014–16.

Early life and entry into politics

Sánchez grew up in comfortable circumstances in Madrid. His youthful ambition was to become a professional basketball player, but he gave that up in his early 20s. He studied business and economics at the Complutense University of Madrid, then completed postgraduate studies at the Free University of Brussels and the Ortega y Gasset University Institute. He joined the PSOE in 1993.

In 1998–99 Sánchez advised the European Parliament and served as chief of staff to the United Nations high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Kosovo conflict. He then began his career as a university academic, teaching economics while also being active with the PSOE in Madrid. He held public office for the first time starting in 2004, when he took up a position as a Madrid city councilor. He became a member of the Spanish Parliament in 2009. Sánchez lost his seat in 2011 and went back to academia; he completed a Ph.D. in economics and business in 2012 at Camilo José Cela University.

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Rising through the ranks

Sánchez became a member of Parliament again in 2013 and was elected PSOE leader in 2014. His term as the party’s head was marked by internal dissent—with some party members considering him too far to the left—and by lackluster election performance. In the wake of these setbacks, Sánchez resigned from his office in 2016, only to take it up again the next year.

In May 2018 he called for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose party was embroiled in a corruption scandal. The vote passed in June—the first time a modern Spanish prime minister has been ousted by a no-confidence vote—and Sánchez took over the position. In another first for Spain, as an atheist, he took the oath of office without a Bible or crucifix.

Terms in office

Domestically, Sánchez’s first term as prime minister was marked by the aftereffects of the crisis surrounding the Catalonian independence referendum that occurred in 2017. In 2021 Sánchez pardoned Catalan leaders who had been jailed for sedition; two years later, he granted a broader amnesty, an unpopular move among conservatives. Another of his initiatives was the disinterment of former dictator Francisco Franco’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen, a national monument holding the remains of thousands of people killed during the Spanish Civil War. The removal of Franco’s remains in October 2019 to a private vault was described by Sánchez as an act of reconciliation in a country still coming to terms with the legacy of war and dictatorship. Sánchez also pursued progressive policies by raising the minimum wage and appointing many women to cabinet positions.

Internationally, Sánchez has expressed strong support for the European Union and cross-border integration—he has called himself “a militant pro-European.” He condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and authorized Spanish military support for Ukraine. In May 2024 his government recognized Palestine as a state. At the same time he upheld Spain’s policy of nonrecognition of Kosovo.

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His second term, which began in 2020, was marked by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain was one of the earliest European countries to be severely hit by the virus; Sánchez’s government was criticized for being slow in responding to the resulting health crisis. A second wave of the disease later in 2020 caused Sánchez to impose lockdowns and curfews. In his third term some of his political allies and family members became subjects of investigation for corruption and influence peddling; Sánchez rejected the allegations as politically motivated. After a two-year investigation, his wife, Begoña Gómez, was formally charged in April 2026 with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption, and misappropriation of funds.

Early in 2026 Sánchez’s government announced that it would implement a general amnesty for migrants living without authorization in Spain; Sánchez cited the migrants’ importance to the Spanish economy as a justification for this move. In March he pushed back against U.S. Pres. Donald Trump’s demand to use military bases in Spain to launch attacks on Iran. In response Trump threatened to cut off trade with Spain. At the end of July, Sánchez was faced with a crisis in Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta, when an estimated 80,000 migrants crossed into the territory. Sánchez deployed further Spanish military forces in the exclave; most migrants returned to Morocco within a few days. At the beginning of September, Spain declared that it was enhancing its security services and reception facilities in Ceuta. At the same time, Spain was being roiled by a housing crisis, with protests taking place in many cities. In response, Sánchez, harnessing the momentum from the ongoing public discontent, announced early general elections for late November.