EU PARLIAMENT’S MOST TOXIC DUO BRINGS TROUBLE FOR VON DER LEYEN Social Democrat chief Iratxe García and center-right boss Manfred Weber’s dire relationship is Brussels’ worst-kept secret. By MAX GRIERA in Brussels Illustration by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO A confrontation six years ago poisoned a relationship at the heart of the EU that remains toxic to this day. Manfred Weber, the powerful German head of the center-right European People’s Party, the largest political family in Europe, knew something was wrong when Iratxe García walked into his office shortly after the 2019 EU election. García, a Spanish MEP who leads the center-left Socialists and Democrats group in the Parliament, was accompanied by Romanian former liberal chief Dacian Cioloș. The pair told Weber that they wouldn’t support his bid to become president of the European Commission, despite the Parliament’s longstanding position that the head of the party receiving the most votes in the election should get the job. While Cioloș is long gone from the EU political scene, García and Weber remain in post — and the animosity between them has only grown, especially now that the EPP is aligning with the far right to pass legislation.  García’s move killed Weber’s Commission ambitions, souring relations between the two and threatening Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s ability to deliver her second-term agenda, as she needs the support of senior MEPs to pass legislation. The pair are like “two toxic exes who had a good relationship, but Weber cheated on García with the far right, and this makes it hard for the Socialists,” said Manon Aubry, co-chair of The Left group in the Parliament. Today, the dire relationship between Weber and García is the talk of the town. For decades, the EPP and S&D — the two largest political families in Europe — have worked hand in hand to provide stable majorities in the Parliament, including backing a second term for von der Leyen at a time of unprecedented crises facing the bloc. Now that stability is in doubt. POLITICO spoke to 12 officials and lawmakers who are or have been close to the pair. Some say the problem is personal, while others blame politics and argue that anyone in their position would have the same relationship issues. “Weber and García have become a problem for von der Leyen,” said a senior Commission official, granted anonymity to speak freely, as were others in this piece. That’s because disagreements between their two groups could lead to less predictable voting in the Parliament, as happened in November with the simplification bill on green reporting rules for businesses, when the EPP sided with the far right rather than with the centrists. Tensions have also spilled toward von der Leyen herself, with García accusing her of “buying into Trump’s agenda” by pushing deregulation. Center-left MEPs have urged the Commission president to rein in Weber over his cooperation with the far right. RELATIONSHIP TAKES A DOWNTURN Verbal attacks in the Parliament’s hemicycle, tensions over Spanish politics, opposing views on the EU’s green ambitions and migration policy, and the fact that the EPP is voting for laws with the far right have eroded what started as a promising relationship. Weber “will never get over the big treason when Iratxe backstabbed him on the Commission presidency,” said a senior EPP MEP. “Everyone needs to stay calm and keep emotions out of it,” said a senior Socialist MEP, noting that many lawmakers, including commissioners, often express concern about the emotional undertones of the relationship. Manfred Weber “will never get over the big treason when Iratxe backstabbed him on the Commission presidency,” said a senior EPP MEP. | Filip Singer/EPA Publicly, both insist relations are just fine. “I really appreciate the strong leadership of Iratxe, she’s a tough representative,” Weber told POLITICO, describing the relationship as in a “great state.” “I can confirm that we have good and regular talks to each other, but we also see our different political positioning,” he added. García also played down the perceived friction, saying the pair have a “working relationship” and “try to understand each other,” while stressing that despite their differences, it is “much more normalized than you might think from the outside.” The reality, according to MEPs and staffers close to the pair, is that six years of working side by side have eroded trust. Weber sees García as incapable of delivering on her promises due to the S&D’s internal divisions and weakness, as it has lost power and influence across Europe; García views Weber as power-hungry and willing to empower the far right at the expense of the center. PERSONAL ATTACKS In her September 2025 State of the Union address, von der Leyen tried to bridge the widening rifts between the EPP and the Socialists by giving policy wins to both sides and calling for unity. But her efforts came to nothing as Weber and García exchanged personal attacks on the hemicycle floor, each blaming the other for the instability of the pro-European coalition. Weber accused Garcia and the Socialists of “harming the European agenda.” During her remarks, the S&D chief shot back: “You know who is responsible for the fact that this pro-European alliance … does not work in this Parliament? It has a name and surname. It is called Manfred Weber.” The exchange reflected a relationship under strain, as the EPP pushed deregulation, weaker green rules, and a crackdown on migration backed by far-right votes after the 2024 election shifted the Parliament to the right. Sidelined by that new math, the Socialists have increasingly felt alienated and have hardened their attacks on von der Leyen for embracing a right-wing deregulation agenda, and on Weber for empowering the far right in general. “The only way for Iratxe to survive is to be more aggressive with EPP and with Manfred,” said a former centrist lawmaker, who argued that García is leaning on rhetoric to rally her base as concrete wins are in such short supply. For his part, Weber is unapologetic about sidelining traditional centrist allies, arguing that the end — tackling policy issues the far right has weaponized against the EU, notably migration and overregulation — justifies the means. “He could not be Commission president so he has been pushing to be a power broker from the Parliament, which means he needs to show he can push for whatever EPP wants, which includes using the far right,” a second senior EPP MEP said of Weber. BETRAYAL Weber and García started their collaboration after the election in 2019, when the latter was chosen as the group leader of S&D after serving as an MEP since 2004 and chair of the committee on women’s rights between 2014 and 2019. For the first two years they were united in their goals of delivering on the Green Deal and addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, but the relationship began to deteriorate in the second half of the term. In a mid-term reshuffle of the Parliament’s top posts, Weber struck a backroom deal with the liberals of Renew and The Left to keep the powerful position of the Parliament’s secretary-general in the hands of the EPP. García had wanted the job for S&D because the previous secretary-general was from the EPP, as is Roberta Metsola, who was about to become the Parliament’s president. Ursula von der Leyen tried to bridge the widening rifts between the EPP and the Socialists by giving policy wins to both sides and calling for unity. | Ronald Wittek/EPA “This was a moment of tension because she really thought she would get it … she took it very personally,” said the senior Socialist MEP. “Her position in the group was also affected by that; she got a lot of criticism.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s reelection in 2023 further strained relations. Weber has for years been betting on the fall of Sánchez, backing Spain’s EPP-aligned opposition (the People’s Party, or PP) and giving them free rein in the Parliament to attack the Spanish Socialist Party, knowing that the EPP would be boosted with an EPP party in power in Madrid. “He does everything the People’s Party wants,” said a liberal Parliament official, who added that “every time Spain is on the agenda, it becomes a nightmare, everyone screaming.” The most recent example came in November, when the EPP sided with far-right groups to cancel a parliamentary visit to Italy to monitor the rule of law in the country, while approving one to Spain — sparking an outcry from García, whom EPP MEPs frame as Sánchez’s lieutenant in Brussels. “It generates a toxic dynamic,” echoed the first senior EPP MEP. BREAKING POINT The Spanish issue came to the fore during the 2024 hearings for commissioners, when MEPs grill prospective office-holders to see if they are up to the task. Under pressure from his Spanish peers, Weber and the EPP went in hard on Sánchez’s deputy Teresa Ribera, blaming her for deadly floods in Valencia in October 2024. While the EPP wanted to take down Ribera, the Socialists hoped to make life difficult for Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, who was put forward by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. While Fitto is not from the EPP (he’s from the European Conservatives and Reformists), his nomination was supported by Weber. In the end, the S&D went easier on Fitto in order to save Ribera from further attacks. After weeks of tensions — with both Weber and García visibly furious and blasting each other in briefings to the press — both Ribera and Fitto were confirmed as commissioners. The struggle highlighted that the old alliance between the EPP and the S&D was cracking, with Weber snubbing García and instead teaming up with the far right.   While they still meet to coordinate parliamentary business — often alongside Renew leader Valérie Hayer and von der Leyen — the partnership is far less effective than before. “It’s very clear they’re no longer running Parliament the way they used to,” said The Left’s Aubry. The breakdown has injected instability into the Parliament, with the once well-oiled duo no longer pre-cooking decisions, making outcomes more unpredictable. Aubry said meetings of group leaders used to take place with a deal already struck — “political theater,” as she put it. “Now we walk in and don’t know where we’ll end up,” Aubry added. “While they get along personally, the results of that cooperation are not that good,” said the second EPP MEP, adding that the alliance between the EPP and the S&D has “not really delivered.” LOOKING AHEAD TO YET MORE BATTLES The next reshuffle of top Parliament jobs is in 2027, and Weber and García are already haggling over who will get to nominate the next Parliament president. The EPP is expected to try to push for Metsola getting a third term, but the Socialists claim it’s their turn per a power-sharing agreement after the 2024 election. Officials from the EPP deny such an agreement exists while officials from Renew and the S&D say it does, although no one could show POLITICO any documentation. The EPP is expected to try to push for Roberta Metsola getting a third term, but the Socialists claim it’s their turn per a power-sharing agreement after the 2024 election. | Ronald Wittek/EPA That’s a major headache for García. The S&D’s Italian and German delegations are itching to get leadership positions, and if the Parliament presidency is off the table they could try to replace her as party chief. With tensions simmering, one Parliament official close to the pair half-joked that García and Weber should settle things over an after-work drink — but it seems the détente will have to wait. “I’d definitely go for a drink,” Weber said with a nervous laugh before noting that both are “so busy” it probably won’t happen. García, also laughing, was even less committal: “I’ve become a real homebody. I don’t go out for drinks anymore.”

Winter vacation can’t start soon enough for Pedro Sánchez. Spain’s governing Socialist Party is being battered by a deluge of sexual harassment scandals that is prompting the resignation or dismissal of mayors, regional leaders and even officials employed in the prime minister’s palace. Within the party, there’s open recognition that its self-proclaimed status as the country’s premier progressive political entity is being severely undermined. The scandals are also provoking major fractures within Sánchez’s coalition government and parliamentary alliance, with even his most reliable collaborators demanding he make major changes — or call snap elections. Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, whose far-left Sumar party is the junior partner in Sánchez’s coalition government, said on Friday that a “profound Cabinet reshuffle” was needed to make a clean break with the rot. Aitor Esteban, president of the Basque Nationalist Party — one of the government’s most reliable parliamentary partners — said if the Socialists fail to halt the “daily hemorrhage of news stories,” snap elections must be held. Spain’s Socialists are no strangers to scandal, having spent the past two years dealing with endless headline-grabbing revelations detailing the alleged embezzlement of public funds by former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and party boss Santos Cerdán — both of whom maintain their innocence. Sánchez has so far weathered the storms by insisting the corruption cases are limited to just a few bad apples, and arguing that only his government can keep the country on a socially liberal track. But the scale of the sexual harassment scandals revealed in recent days — which have coincided with anti-corruption raids in government buildings — represent an unprecedented challenge for the prime minister. There are serious doubts that Sánchez’s “stay-the-course” playbook will suffice to see his government through this latest political earthquake. GROWING SKEPTICISM When Sánchez came to power in 2018 he boasted that he led “the most feminist government in history,” with 11 of the country’s 17 ministries led by women. Over the past seven years his successive administrations have passed legislation to ensure gender balance in key sectors, fight gender-based violence and promote gender equality abroad. But the actions of some of Sa´nchez’s fellow Socialists are fueling growing skepticism about whether the governing party truly respects women. Last summer the prime minister apologized to supporters and expressed his “shame” after the release of wiretaps on which the Spanish police alleged former Transport Minister Ábalos could be heard describing his trysts with female sex workers. Ábalos, for his part, claims the recordings have been manipulated and the voice they capture is not his. Weeks later, sexual harassment complaints against another of the prime minister’s long-time collaborators, Francisco Salazar, forced his resignation on the very day he was meant to assume a new role as one of the party’s top leaders. That scandal resurfaced this month after Spanish media revealed the party had slow-walked its investigation into the alleged abuses committed by Salazar, who maintains his innocence. Last week Sánchez said he took “personal responsibility” for the botched investigation and apologized for not reaching out to Salazar’s victims. He also ordered the dismissal of Antonio Hernández, an official employed in the prime minister’s palace whom Salazar’s victims had singled out as the harasser’s alleged “accomplice.” Hernández denies the accusation. Sánchez’s attempts to contain the situation don’t appear to have quelled indignation over the party’s failure to address Salazar’s alleged abuses, and the frustration has resulted in a version of the #MeToo movement within the Socialists’ ranks. Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, whose far-left Sumar party is the junior partner in Sánchez’s coalition government, said on Friday that a “profound Cabinet reshuffle” was needed to make a clean break with the rot. | Perez Meca/Getty Images Over recent days, the party’s boss in Torremolinos has been suspended from his post after being denounced for sexual harassment by an alderman, who also accused the Socialists of failing to act when she first reported the alleged abuses last summer. Belalcázar’s mayor has also stepped down following the publication of sexually explicit messages to a municipal employee, and the launch of an investigation for alleged harassment has prompted the Socialists’ deputy secretary in the province of Valencia to leave the party. The three officials deny the accusations against them. So, too, does José Tomé, who insists the multiple sexual harassment complaints that resulted in his resignation as president of the Provincial Council of Lugo this week are completely unfounded. The admission of regional leader José Ramón Gómez Besteiro that he had been aware of the allegations against Tomé for months prompted the party’s regional equality czar to step down in disgust, and are generating doubts regarding the Socialists’ political future in the Galicia. TROUBLED TIMES The barrage of sexual harassment complaints are a major problem for Sánchez. Women are a key segment of his party’s voter base: Female voters tend to participate in elections to a greater extent than men, and have historically mobilized in favor of the Socialists. But surveys by the country’s national polling institute reveal that women are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the party. In a poll carried out shortly after the Ábalos recordings were released, support for the Socialists among female voters dropped from 26.2 percent to 19.4 percent. Pilar Bernabé, the party’s equality secretary, admitted on Friday that the wave of harassment complaints marked a “before and after” moment for the Socialists, who now had to prove that they have zero tolerance for abuse. “Sexism is incompatible with Socialism,” she added. The challenges to the party’s bona fides are less than welcome at a moment when it faces multiple corruption investigations. In addition to the ongoing probes into Ábalos and Cerdán — both of whom were ordered jailed without bond last month — this week former Socialist Party member Leire Díez along with Vicente Fernández, the former head of the state-owned agency charged with managing Spain’s business holdings, were arrested for alleged embezzlement and influence peddling. At their respective bail hearings, Díez invoked her right to remain silent, while Fernández denied any wrongdoing. Days later, the elite anti-corruption unit of Spain’s Civil Guard raided several agencies managed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, as well as the headquarters of the Spanish Postal Service, as part of a related investigation into the alleged rigging of public contracts. CAN SÁNCHEZ CARRY ON? During a campaign event headlined by Sa´nchez on Sunday, party members urged the prime minister to act. “Take a firm hand to the harassers, the womanizers, the chauvinists!” said Irene Pozas, head of the Socialist Youth in the province of Cáceres. “Don’t hold back, Pedro: The women of the Socialist Party must not have any cause for regret!” Pedro Sánchez may be hoping for relief from the scandals during the upcoming holiday break in Spain, but it’s unclear if his party, and the weak coalition government it leads, will be able to recover. | Marcos del Mazo/Getty Images While admitting shortcomings in the party’s internal mechanisms for handling complaints, Sánchez defended the Socialists’ determination to “act decisively and transparently” to tackle sexism and corruption. The prime minister also defiantly asserted his will to carry on, telling supporters that “governing means facing the music and staying strong through thick and thin.” Sánchez may be hoping for relief from the scandals during the upcoming holiday break in Spain, but it’s unclear if his party, and the weak coalition government it leads, will be able to recover. Although the prime minister insists he intends to govern until the current legislative term ends in 2027, his inability to pass a fresh budget and wider difficulties in passing legislation jeopardize that goal. The Socialists’ parliamentary allies are reluctant to see Sánchez fall because they know snap elections will almost certainly produce a right-wing government influenced by the far-right Vox party. But they are also wary of being associated misogyny and fraud — especially if voters may soon be heading to the polls. “Stopping the far right and the extreme right is always a non-negotiable duty, but it is not achieved merely by saying it, but by demonstrating that we are better,” tweeted the president of the Republican Left of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras. “Those who abuse and become corrupt cannot regenerate democracy.”

Carlos Mazón, the center-right president of Spain’s Valencia region, announced his resignation Monday, caving to pressure to take political responsibility for the devastating floods in which 229 people died one year ago. It became evident last week that if Spain’s conservatives want to keep governing in the region, Mazón had to go. Backed by the People’s Party (PP) leadership, the regional president had been able to resist the tens of thousands of Valencians who called for his resignation in mass protests over the past 12 months. But the breaking point came at last Wednesday’s state funeral for the victims, at which King Felipe VI and other bewildered dignitaries watched mourning families shout insults at Mazón, whom they referred to as an “assassin.” After a weekend of “reflection” and a talk with PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the regional president admitted Monday he couldn’t “do it anymore.” Mazón is seen as the embodiment of the regional government’s botched response to the catastrophe. In the lead-up to the floods, the PP politician downplayed the threat posed by the severe weather forecast in the region. It was later revealed that Mazón had remained at a private lunch with a female journalist as the storm raged and did not show up at the crisis center until after dark. His absence is cited as a factor in the regional authority’s decision to delay sending an SMS alert warning locals of the danger until 8:28 p.m., when most of the victims had already drowned. Within days of the disaster, victims’ families began demanding that Mazón take political responsibility for the disaster and resign. But despite the mounting evidence that the regional government had mismanaged the crisis, PP leader Feijóo backed the center-right politician. Feijóo’s initial willingness to support Mazón reflects Valencia’s importance for the PP. The region is one of the fastest growing in Spain, and its conquest by the conservatives in 2023 was seen as a major victory for the party. But the center-right governs in minority in Valencia, and there were fears that Mazón’s ouster could jeopardize the hard-won prize. So Spain’s conservatives were mobilized to shift blame onto center-left political figures like Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, then-Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Ribera, and even the scientists at the country’s National Meteorological Agency. Over the past 12 months, however, Spanish courts exonerated both Sánchez and Ribera, underscoring that the regional government was the only entity authorized to manage the crisis. Spain’s state forecasters have similarly been cleared, with evidence proving their warnings about the coming storms were ignored. In the meantime, the Valencian judge leading the probe meant to establish blame for the disaster has indicted members of Mazón’s team, and only spared the center-right politician because his presidential status means he can only be indicted by Valencia’s High Court of Justice. Mazón on Monday recognized that he had made “mistakes,” but bitterly complained that he was the victim of a “brutal campaign” to force his ouster. He declined to dissolve the Valencian parliament and call snap elections, or to resign his post as a lawmaker, ensuring he maintains a degree of judicial immunity.

Catalan separatists voted to sever ties with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists, further weakening his minority government. Citing a “lack of will” from the Socialists, separatist Junts’ party leader Carles Puigdemont said Sánchez had failed to carry out the promises made in 2023 when he persuaded Junts’ seven lawmakers in the Spanish parliament to back his bid to remain in power. The break is dire for Sánchez, whose government has no hope of passing legislation without the support of Junts’ lawmakers. The prime minister has not been able to get a new budget approved since the start of this term and has instead governed with extensions of the 2022 budget and EU recovery cash. Without the backing of Catalan separatist lawmakers, the Socialists have no way to secure the additional funds needed to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands Madrid increase its defense spending. Puigdemont said the Socialists no longer “have the capacity to govern” and challenged Sánchez to explain how he intends to remain in power. But the exiled separatist leader appeared to reject teaming up with the center-right People’s Party and the far-right Vox group to back a censure motion to topple Sánchez outright. “We will not support any government that does not support Catalonia, this one or any other,” the separatist leader said, apparently ruling out collaboration with the parties, both of which are opposed to the separatist movement and its nationalist objectives. INCOMPLETE COMMITMENTS During his press conference in Perpignan, Puigdemont reprimanded Sánchez and his Socialist Party for failing to keep its promises. In exchange for Junts’ crucial support in 2023, the prime minister’s party committed to passing an amnesty law benefiting hundreds of separatists and other measures. While many of those vows — among them, new rules allowing the use of Catalan in the Spanish parliament — have been fulfilled, others are pending. The Spanish parliament passed the promised amnesty bill last year, but its full application has since been halted by the courts. Spain’s Supreme Court has specifically blocked Puigdemont — who fled Spain following the failed 2017 Catalan independence referendum and has since lived in exile in Waterloo, Belgium — from benefiting from the law, citing pending embezzlement charges. Carles Puigdemont said the Socialists no longer “have the capacity to govern.” | Gloria Sanchez/Getty Images The lack of change in his status quo is a source of deep frustration for the separatist leader, who in a 2024 interview with POLITICO said his greatest desire was to “go home to Girona, to enjoy my homeland and be with my wife and daughters … to lead a normal life that will allow me to become anonymous once again.” Puigdemont also cited the Socialists’ inability to get Catalan recognized as an official EU language as a reason for the break in relations. Spanish diplomats have spent the past two years lobbying counterparts in Brussels and national capitals and recently persuaded Germany to back the proposal. But numerous countries remain opposed to the idea, arguing the move would cost the EU millions of euros in new translation and interpretation fees and embolden Breton, Corsican or Russian-speaking minorities to seek similar recognition. The separatist leader added that the Sánchez government’s reluctance to give Catalonia jurisdiction over immigration within that region proved that although there might be “personal trust” between the Socialists and Junts’ representatives, “political trust” was lacking. Junts’ members are now called upon to either ratify or reject the executive committee’s decision in an internal consultation that concludes Thursday. The party’s supporters, who include Puigdemont’s most devoted followers, are expected to overwhelmingly back the move to break with the Socialists. Over the past two years Junts has hardly been an unwavering source of support for Sánchez’s weak minority government. The party has declined to back key bills and stressed that it is not part of the “progressive” coalition composed of the Socialists and the left-wing Sumar party, but rather a pragmatic partner that is solely focused on Catalonia’s interests. At a meeting of the Socialist Party leadership in Madrid on Monday, Sánchez insisted the party should “remain open to dialogue and willing to engage” with Junts. Following Puigdemont’s speech, Science and Universities Minister Diana Morant expressed doubts “Junts’ electorate voted in favor of letting Vox or the People’s Party govern” and said the Catalan separatists needed to “choose whether they want Spain to represent progress or regression.”

Spain will attempt Monday to reenergize the EU’s stalled proposal to end seasonal clock changes and demand Brussels fulfill its promise to end daylight saving time. “As you know, the clocks will change again this week and I, frankly, no longer see the point in it,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a video posted on X Monday morning. “In all the surveys in which Spaniards and Europeans are asked, the majority are against changing the time,” he said. “Moreover, there’s plenty of scientific evidence that shows it barely helps to save energy and has a negative impact on people’s health and lives.” The bloc’s transport, telecoms and energy ministers have traditionally handled discussions regarding the EU’s time policies, which can affect the functioning of the all-important single market and have an impact on power use and transport safety. The issue was not scheduled to be debated at Monday’s ministerial summit in Luxembourg but, upon his arrival at the meeting, Spanish Secretary of State for Energy Joan Groizard announced he had requested its inclusion on the agenda. “The energy system is changing a lot, and it’s important to reopen the debate to find a solution that works as well as possible,” Groizard said. Representatives from northern EU members including Finland and Poland have repeatedly raised concerns about clock-changing, citing data which shows the practice has negative physical or mental effects on an estimated 20 percent of Europe’s population. Indeed, 84 percent of the 6.4 million Europeans who participated in a 2018 European Commission public consultation on the matter said the bloc should put an end to daylight saving time. In his social media post, Sánchez said it was high time for the EU to carry out the proposal announced by then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during his 2018 State of the Union address in the European Parliament. “Clock-changing must stop,” Juncker told lawmakers, insisting that daylight saving shifts would end by October 2019 at latest. “We are out of time.” But Juncker’s proposal irritated national leaders, who questioned the Commission’s mandate for proposing such a shift, let alone imposing a short timeline for its costly implementation. Then-Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa — who became the president of the European Council last year — rejected the idea altogether, citing the advice of technical experts who said the change would be detrimental to his country’s citizens. Greece, too, was opposed to the change. The split among national leaders permitted daylight saving to survive Juncker’s 2019 deadline and the European Parliament’s later call for time changes to end by 2021. It’s unclear if Spain’s effort is quixotic: to secure the Council’s endorsement of the proposal, it requires the backing of a qualified majority of member countries. Sánchez will need to convince 15 out of the bloc’s 27 member countries, or a group of countries representing at least 65 percent of the EU’s population, to back the idea — and hope fewer than four capitals oppose it outright. Seasonal clock-changing was first introduced in Europe during World War I in a bid to conserve coal, but was abandoned after the conflict ended. Similar energy concerns prompted most countries to reintroduce the scheme during World War II, and in response to the 1970s global oil crisis. In 1980 the then-European Communities issued its first directive on time arrangements to ensure all EU members followed the practice and made the biannual switch at the same date and time. The current EU rules, which have been in place since 2001, specify EU member countries move their clocks forward one hour at 1 a.m. on the last Sunday of March, and wind back one hour on the last Sunday in October.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday announced a permanent ban on the sale of weapons and ammunition to Israel as part of a package of measures aimed at “stopping the genocide” in Gaza. In addition to the ban on sales from Spain, Sánchez said ships carrying fuel destined for Israel’s armed forces will be prohibited from docking in Spanish ports, while aircraft known to be transporting military materiel will be forbidden from entering the country’s airspace. Sánchez said that while Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, it does not have the prerogative to “exterminate a defenseless people,” as he cited the international community’s failure to address the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza. “Protecting your country and your society is one thing; bombing hospitals and starving children is another,” he added, stressing Spain’s responsibility to do whatever it can to halt “what the U.N. special rapporteur and many experts consider a genocide.” The package of measures announced by Sánchez forbids people who have “directly participated in genocide, human rights violations and war crimes in the Gaza Strip” from entering Spain. The prime minister did not clarify how the participation would be assessed, or how those individuals would be identified. The package also includes new restrictions on consular services offered to Spanish citizens residing in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as a total ban on products imported from occupied territories. Sánchez has long been one of the EU’s most vocal critics of Israel’s military assault on Gaza and last year recognized Palestinian statehood. But the left-wing Sumar party, junior members in Sánchez’s fragile minority government, has been pressuring the Socialist prime minister to take more aggressive action to support Gaza. Sumar leader and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz on Monday celebrated the adoption of the new measures, but urged Sánchez to go even further and withdraw Spain’s ambassador from Tel Aviv. In response to Sánchez’s announcement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused the Spanish government of being “anti-Semitic” and using a “hostile anti-Israeli line” to “distract attention from serious corruption scandals.” Sa’ar also banned Díaz and Youth Minister Cira Rego — the daughter of a Palestinian refugee — from entering Israel, citing their “support for terrorism and violence against Israelis.”

An ally of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has resigned after allegations of sexual harassment — in a fresh blow for Spain’s Socialist Party just weeks after a string of corruption scandals erupted. Francisco Salazar, a close ally of Sánchez, stepped down from his position as a deputy in the party’s secretariat and asked for the claims to be investigated, the Socialist Party said in a statement. The allegations were made in the left-wing Spanish news site elDiario.es. The outlet alleged that Salazar made inappropriate comments about a female subordinate’s clothing and body, invited her to dinner alone and asked her to sleep at his home.   The Socialist Party said it will begin an investigation immediately, but said no official complaints had been made. The latest incident is a fresh blow for Sánchez, who was due to speak at the party’s headquarters in Madrid as the news broke. Reuters reported that Sánchez spoke an hour later than scheduled, and called for any woman suffering sexual abuse to report it via the party’s official channels. He did not mention Salazar directly. Sánchez publicly apologized last month for the party’s recent corruption scandals including senior party figures. The Spanish prime minister, who leads a minority coalition government, has repeatedly come under fire for the scandals. The main opposition party, the center-right Peoples’ Party, has accused Sánchez of being a “capo” leading a “mafia” administration, while protests in Madrid organized by the PP last month drew tens of thousands. Even from within his own party, politicians from Spain’s cities and regions have called for Sánchez to hold snap national elections — even while knowing their party would be virtually guaranteed to lose. The speech at the Socialist Party’s headquarters was intended to draw a line under the recent scandals and announce a shake-up of the party to bolster its reputation.

BRUSSELS — Politicians might talk big about breaking down the national barriers that stop Europe competing with the U.S. and China, but everywhere you look they’re doing their best to keep the ones they think matter. Take the EU’s Banking Union project, which first saw the light 15 years ago when the eurozone debt crisis nearly took the financial system down along with the single currency. Regulators have been pleading for years to let a fragmented banking market consolidate and create the kind of continent-wide institutions that can mobilize the vast sums needed to revive a stagnant economy.  But national capitals continue to hobble any deal they see as a threat to local interests — so much so that the European Commission is now investigating Spain and Italy’s interference with big domestic banking mergers. It’s increasingly impatient with what it sees as unjustified attempts to block deals that antitrust regulators have already blessed. In Spain, the government of Socialist Pedro Sánchez has imposed new conditions on Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria’s €12 billion hostile takeover bid for Catalonia’s Banco Sabadell, an extra layer of scrutiny that is only used in exceptional cases. BBVA swallowed hard and said on Monday that it will proceed with the deal, even though the government won’t let it absorb Sabadell fully for at least three years.  That deal had already been approved by Spain’s national competition authority, while the Bank of Spain recommended the deal to the European Central Bank, which is the direct supervisor of both banks.   “There is no basis to stop an operation based on a discretionary decision by a member state government” when the takeover has been cleared by the competent authorities, Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said. For six months, the Commission has been having a back-and-forth with Madrid over the deal under a procedure called the EU Pilot — an informal dialogue between the EU and countries that can lead to formal infringement procedures. That process is ongoing. “Spanish rules allow for government intervention on general interest grounds, on mergers that have already been reviewed by the competition authority, but this is extremely rare,” Pedro Callol, a Spanish antitrust lawyer, told POLITICO. The only time it has used the power, he said, was in a deal between broadcasters Antena 3 and La Sexta in 2012. ROMAN INTRIGUES There were echoes of Madrid’s behavior in a similar case in Italy, where a bewilderingly complex and politicized struggle for control of the banking system is playing out. The government of Giorgia Meloni has saddled UniCredit’s bid for rival Banco BPM with so many conditions that UniCredit now says it makes no sense to proceed. Rome did so by invoking its “golden power,” which was originally designed to stop foreign takeovers from threatening national security. That move did not go unnoticed in Brussels, where officials opened two distinct probes into the matter, led respectively by the financial services and the competition directorates. It has also triggered an exchange under the EU Pilot, and the Commission “is now assessing the reply of Italian authorities.” Competition officials in Brussels cleared the deal with conditions on June 19, rejecting Rome’s request to hand the deal back to the national antitrust authority. Competition officials also sent Rome a set of questions on its “golden power,” a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO, explaining that only in “exceptional” circumstances can a government interfere with a Brussels merger decision. National interventions in mergers aiming to protect a “legitimate interest,” they said, should be “appropriate, proportionate and non-discriminatory.” The government of Giorgia Meloni has saddled UniCredit’s bid for rival Banco BPM with so many conditions that UniCredit now says it makes no sense to proceed. | Michael Nguyen/Getty Images There are broader concerns over Rome’s entanglements in the banking sector. Government officials have spoken privately of the need to build up a third force in Italian banking that would act as a counterweight to the dominant duo of UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, which they hope would bolster credit access for the small firms and households that make up a sizable bulk of the ruling coalition’s electoral base. According to Rome insiders, the government wants to build this “third pole” around Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), which has been under effective government control since the last in a series of expensive bailouts in 2017. The Commission only approved that bailout on the condition that Rome reduce its influence over the bank as quickly as practicable. With the conditions having been fulfilled, MPS is now on the hunt for acquisitions — with the backing of the government, which is still its largest shareholder, owning an 11.7 percent stake. At first, Meloni’s government aimed to merge MPS with BPM, which bought a large stake in the Tuscan lender last year. When that was derailed by UniCredit, the government changed tack, supporting a surprise €12.5 billion bid by MPS for Milan-based investment bank Mediobanca. The target rejected the offer outright as having “no industrial rationale” and as being structured so as to create significant conflicts of interest at the shareholder level — an implicit complaint about the offer’s political dimensions.   Both the EU executive and Milan prosecutors are now reportedly probing Rome’s handling of its sale of the MPS stake last November amid suggestions that it favored investors close to the government. VESTED INTERESTS AND COMPETITIVENESS CONCERNS The Commission’s frustration is due in part to the notion that banking consolidation, and the broader completion of a single market for financial services, is urgently needed to boost the bloc’s overall competitiveness. EU financial services chief Maria Luís Albuquerque is taking every chance to emphasize that Europe needs bigger banks to compete with U.S. and Chinese rivals. Currently, JPMorgan alone is worth as much as the eurozone’s eight biggest banks put together. Any move to stop such consolidation must be “proportionate and based on legitimate public interests,” spokesperson Gill said. Rome’s three-party coalition may be keeping its cards close to its chest regarding its broader plans, but Spanish politicians haven’t even been trying to mask their motives. Jordi Turull, secretary-general of the Junts per Catalunya party that props up Pedro Sánchez’ minority government in Madrid, complained to TV3 that the Spanish National Commission of Markets and Competition and European authorities had only presented “technical reasons” for allowing BBVA to take over Sabadell. “Now is the time for politics,” he said, arguing that “there are enough reasons” for the government to get involved. Sánchez’ fragile minority government cannot pass legislation — nor a national budget — without the support of Catalan political parties that consider Sabadell’s independence a matter of regional pride. BBVA’s bid to take over the bank, which was founded in Barcelona over 100 years ago, has consistently faced broad political opposition in Catalonia. Separatist and unionist politicians have rallied around the bank, arguing the deal would reduce Sabadell’s presence in the region, particularly in already underserved rural area (they appear to have forgiven Sabadell’s rapid relocation of its domicile to the legal safety of Valencia when Catalonia pushed for independence back in 2017). GERMAN ROADBLOCKS Next in line for Commission scrutiny could be Germany, which is anything but keen for UniCredit to swallow Commerzbank, the country’s second-largest private sector bank. UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel’s team received permission from the ECB in March to raise its stake to 29.9 percent. It currently holds 9.5 percent directly, and another 18.5 percent indirectly through derivatives, and has warned that converting those rights into physical shares still requires several other approvals, including from the German Federal Cartel Office. But the new government in Berlin hasn’t signaled any greater willingness to allow a takeover than the previous one under Olaf Scholz. Berlin is still Commerzbank’s biggest shareholder, with a stake of 12 percent, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters in Rome last month that he didn’t see any need to discuss the deal with his Italian counterparts as it was not in the works for now. Such roadblocks are giving Commerzbank the time to mount a vigorous defense. New CEO Bettina Orlopp announced a radical package of measures in February to improve profitability and get the bank’s market value up to a level where UniCredit would struggle to mount a full takeover. That package included some 3,300 job cuts in Germany — precisely the kind of thing that Commerzbank’s unions had been hoping to avoid when they lobbied the previous government to stop a takeover. UniCredit is still holding on to the option of launching a full takeover, but in March accepted that any such process is likely to last well beyond the end of this year. Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed to this report.

MADRID — With his conservative People’s Party comfortably ahead in polls and the Socialist-led government mired in scandals, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has never looked so close to becoming Spanish prime minister. In theory, Spain doesn’t need to hold a general election until 2027 but outrage over corruption investigations into the center-left party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is building to such a fever pitch that the country could well be heading for a snap election. This weekend, Feijóo will lead an extraordinary convention of his party in Madrid to confirm his position as leader and amplify the idea that he is ready to govern. “Let’s end this nightmare,” he told supporters as he lambasted Sánchez. “We just want to know when he’s going to sign his resignation letter.” Actually removing Sánchez, however, comes down to tight margins in parliamentary alliances. When grilled about why he had not brought a motion of no confidence in the battered government on June 18, Feijóo told Sánchez: “I don’t lack willingness, I lack four votes.” At the national level, most polls show the People’s Party (PP) leading Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) by a clear margin — echoing the 2023 election. POLITICO’s Poll of Polls puts the PP on 34 percent and the Socialists on 27 percent. “Feijóo knows that it’s now or never, because I don’t think he’ll have another chance like this,” said Oriol Bartomeus, a political scientist at Barcelona’s Autonomous University.  Despite winning the most votes in 2023, Feijóo was unable to form a governing majority. Instead, Sánchez managed to bring together a broad coalition of allies — perhaps most critically a handful of small Catalan and Basque parties, which abhor the PP’s strident hostility to separatism and its willingness to engage with the far-right Vox. The pressures Feijóo faces in Madrid have pushed him to team up with forces further to the right, where he’s found strong allies in attacking the leftist government. Many polls suggest the PP and Vox could together win enough seats in an election to form a majority. But none of this means Feijóo will find it plain sailing to take power. His own party also has a corrupt image, while he faces stiff competition from within its ranks. Despite the woes of the Socialists, Feijóo may still lack sufficient support to build a governing alliance. While he certainly has a prime opportunity, nothing is guaranteed. SOCIALISTS UNDER SIEGE The most recent investigations into corruption have been a gift for Feijóo and his party, who describe the Sánchez government as “a mafia.” On June 12, Sánchez apologized to Spaniards for having trusted Santos Cerdán, his party’s No. 3, who was implicated by audio recordings in a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme. The affair also triggered an investigation into another former senior Socialist and Sánchez ally, José Luis Ábalos, who had been transport minister. Cerdán, who denies involvement in the scheme, has been placed in preventive custody. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, 63, took the reins of the conservative People’s Party in 2022 as a seasoned moderate who had won four elections in a row in the northwestern region of Galicia, a PP stronghold. | Carlos Lujan/Europa Press via Getty Images The recordings included sordid discussions about prostitutes and apparent evidence that Sánchez’s allies had rigged voting when he won the PSOE primary in 2014. Meanwhile, other recordings seemed to show party operative Leire Díez offering favorable treatment to a businessman in exchange for damaging information about the Civil Guard unit probing individuals close to Sánchez, including his wife and brother. Díez says she was gathering material for a book. Regardless of the revelations, the prime minister has refused to resign or bring forward elections, arguing that the scandals are isolated cases and that he is keeping an extremist opposition out of power.  As long as his delicate parliamentary majority remains in place, there is little Feijóo can do to oust him. SWINGING TOO FAR RIGHT? Feijóo, 63, took the reins of the party in 2022 as a seasoned moderate who had won four elections in a row in the northwestern region of Galicia, a PP stronghold.  He has launched fierce attacks on the government for its willingness to engage with separatists and push through an amnesty law to benefit the pro-independence Catalans, which form a critical part of the fragile Sánchez coalition.  Facing pressure from the right-wing media, Vox, and PP colleague Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region and a potential competitor, Feijóo has variously described Sánchez as a caudillo — meaning “strongman,” a term used to refer to dictator Francisco Franco — “an international embarrassment” and “a veritable threat to democracy.” He has also taken this combative approach to Brussels, where the PP unsuccessfully tried to block the appointment of Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera as European commissioner. In May, the PP successfully campaigned to thwart a Spanish government effort to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official EU languages — an important promise Sánchez made to the nationalist parties in his coalition. “Feijóo underwent a process of radicalization and now his position is one of a classic Madrid conservative leader,” said Bartomeus, who says he has still not won over many traditional PP voters. “But when you spend every moment warning of the apocalypse and then the apocalypse doesn’t come, you start to have a problem.” Frustrated, Feijóo has even floated the possibility Sánchez committed fraud in the 2023 general election. Pointing to apparent irregularities in the 2014 Socialist primary, he said: “If you’ve already robbed a jewelry store, why not rob a bank?” Such comments have drawn claims that the PP leader has strayed into the territory of Vox further to the right. “Feijóo is two interviews away from saying that the Earth is flat and vaccines kill,” said left-wing commentator Esther Palomera. NO STRANGERS TO SCANDAL The longer the famously resilient Sánchez digs in, the less time remains for Feijóo. That’s partly due to the high stock of two of his rivals in the PP: hardline maverick Ayuso and the moderate president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, both seen as potential threats to take the leadership. The longer the famously resilient Pedro Sánchez digs in, the less time remains for Alberto Núñez Feijóo. | Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images And that’s before we even get to the corruption problem within Feijóo’s own party. Sánchez took power in 2018 by removing the scandal-plagued PP of Mariano Rajoy from government. The judicial fallout from that era continues, with several cases involving conservative politicians still being processed.  In the spring of 2026, the “Operation Kitchen” case is due to come to trial, with former senior PP figures facing accusations of orchestrating a deep-state operation to destroy damaging evidence against the party. The trial could cement the idea that graft plagues both mainstream parties, bolstering the far right in polls. Meanwhile, the Socialists have reminded Spaniards of Feijóo’s former friendship with a notorious Galician drug trafficker, Marcial Dorado. In 2013, photos were published of the men on vacation together in the 1990s. Feijóo has never explained the circumstances of the relationship. Instead, he embraced the idea of being someone to whom success does not necessarily come easily. “Today, I tell you with all humility that I am better than the politician who achieves his objectives the first time around,” he said recently. Time is running out for him to prove that remains the case.

Spain insists it got an opt-out from NATO’s new goal of spending 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense, but alliance chief Mark Rutte on Monday raised questions about how low Spain will be able to go. NATO allies agreed over the weekend on a new 5 percent of GDP goal by 2035 — with 3.5 percent going on “hard defense” such as weapons and troops, and an additional 1.5 percent on defense-related investments such as cybersecurity and military mobility. The document’s wording permits Spain to spend less as long as it meets the updated capability targets approved by alliance defense ministers on June 5. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez insisted on Sunday that Madrid would need to spend only 2.1 percent of GDP “to acquire and maintain all the personnel, equipment, and infrastructures requested by the alliance to confront these threats with our capabilities.” Rutte thinks that’s very unlikely. “Spain thinks they can achieve those targets with 2.1 percent spending. NATO is absolutely convinced that Spain will have to spend 3.5 percent to get there,” Rutte said at his Monday press conference in The Hague, ahead of the NATO leaders’ summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. “NATO has no opt-out and NATO doesn’t know side deals,” Rutte said. He stressed that each country will now regularly report on their progress in reaching the top secret capability targets. “So we will see, and anyway, there will be a review in 2029,” Rutte said. Spain’s pushback against the 5 percent target has also inspired other countries with low defense spending to look for similar exemptions. On Monday, Belgium announced that it would seek “maximum flexibility” from NATO. “We may not have done so by making a noisy statement like Spain, but I can assure you that for weeks our diplomats have been working hard to obtain the flexibility mechanisms,” Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot told local media.  Last week, the country’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, told lawmakers that the Belgian government would support NATO’s new defense spending target, even though it is a “bitter pill to swallow.”