"Surreal accusations nothing new in today's Europe"
"Harassment and bullying" prompted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to threaten to resign. But he is far from the only European leader who has had to endure drive recently, writes The Guardian's Jon Henley.
Among other things, Henley highlights the election campaign in Poland when the former ruling Law and Justice party claimed that challenger Donald Tusk would hand over half of Poland to Russia and help the EU import illegal migrants.
"In an increasingly polarized political sphere and on a social media battlefield, where reality coexists with the wildest imagination, politicians across the continent must live with being the targets of surreal accusations," writes Jon Henley.
In Spain, the question of how the events affected Sánchez's credibility is being discussed. Politicians from the left to the right were genuinely surprised by his reaction, writes Isambard Wilkinson in The Times.
- This reinforces the image of him as a polarizing figure, says the Spanish professor Pablo Simón to the newspaper.
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Spain's prime minister remains in office: Throwing dirt
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will not resign following the corruption charges against his wife Begoña Gómez, he announced in a speech on Monday.
In the speech, he calls the accusations against his wife a "smear campaign" and political persecution. Sánchez announced last week that he would take a five-day break from work to consider what to do with his family.
The accusations have been brought forward by an organization with far-right connections and are based on loose information in tabloids. A prosecutor requested on Thursday that the investigation be discontinued.
Over the weekend, large demonstrations in support of Sánchez were held outside party headquarters in Madrid.
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