History repeats itself: as in the first government of Pedro Sánchez, when culture minister Màxim Huerta only lasted a week in the post after it emerged that he had committed tax fraud between 2006 and 2008 and thus provoked the executive's first crisis, this time it has taken a little longer - two weeks - and the PSOE-Podemos coalition government is already grappling with its first schism. But in addition, the impact is significant this time around, as the minister whose resignation is sought is José Luis Ábalos, the minister holding the development-related portfolios and also number three in the PSOE hierarchy. That is, a real party heavyweight, and one who works very closely with Sánchez.
If the Spanish prime minister learned anything from the previous legislature, it is that he is not prepared to keep sacking ministers, and he always has instruments - communication is one - to calm the public debate. Thus, in 2018, after sacking a second minister, health portfolio holder Carmen Montón, due to irregularities in her master's degree, he changed his strategy and faced down the howls to shield justice minister Dolores Delgado, who was targeted after the revelation of conversations she had had with imprisoned former police commissioner Villarejo. That's enough resignations, he said.
On this occasion, Ábalos's error, denying that he had met with Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to later accept that they had seen each other while denying they had held a meeting, and then even placing a third version on the table on Saturday, has made the minister's situation very delicate. He won't be made to walk, because Sánchez can't afford it; it would open a deep crisis and give ammunition to the opposition. But the PM has quite a problem, because Ábalos's action implies, simultaneously, a crisis with the EU, an ethical problem for having lied and complications with the United States.
The fact that Ábalos has come out saying that he has no intention of resigning and Sánchez has supported him is nothing more than an attempt to put out the fire. This issue will keep burning for a while, whatever the intentions of Ábalos, Sánchez and Iglesias (intelligently silent). The whims of politics: their first crisis has not been connected to Catalonia.