Spain PM Sanchez walks back from resignation threat

Spain's Pedro Sanchez said Monday he would stay on as prime minister after threatening to stand down over what he denounced as a campaign of political harassment by the right.

"I have decided to stay," the 52-year-old Socialist leader said in a highly-anticipated public address that drew a line under uncertainty that had gripped Spain for five days.

In office since 2018, Sanchez on Wednesday dropped a political bombshell saying he would consider resignation after a court confirmed a preliminary probe into his wife Begona Gomez for suspected influence peddling and corruption.

The complaint was triggered by an anti-graft NGO with ties to the far right. The right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) also demanded answers.

Sanchez's response, outlined in a letter published on X, the former Twitter, immediately switched the focus onto toxic political practices targeting politicians' families, and to Spain's political future.

Denying his move was a "political calculation", Sanchez called for a public reflection on a growing political polarisation which he said was increasingly being driven by "deliberate disinformation".

"For too long we've let this filth corrupt our political and public life with toxic methods that were unimaginable just a few years ago... Do we really want this for Spain?" he asked.

His decision to stay, he said, was "decisively influenced" by the mass show of support on Saturday outside the Madrid headquarters of his Socialist party, where thousands of emotional supporters had chanted: "Pedro, stay!"

During an interview with Spanish public television on Monday night, Sanchez said his wife had also urged him not to resign.

He said the campaign of "misinformations" had sought to turn him into...