Nicknames for Spain's Sánchez: from 'Moncloa squatter' to 'Dog'

From 'Falconeti' to 'Dog': the list of nicknames that trinc Sánchez around

A list of more than fifty nicknames against Pedro Sánchez has been circulating for almost three years on a current affairs forum. The mechanics are always the same: someone throws out a name, another participant adds a variant, and the thread grows like a children's game of tag. The result is a catalogue ranging from the easy joke to the political portrait, and it says more about the mood of part of the electorate than about the prime minister's biography.

The conversation opens with an enumeration that mixes all kinds of references: from puns on his surname («Falconeti», «Embelecoz», «Sanchezscu») to labels about his record («The Moncloa squatter», «The Old Women Killer», «The Undertaker»). There is no single criterion. What there is, is an implicit competition to see who can come up with the sharpest label. And underneath it all, the suspicion that whichever nickname wins out will end up serving as a summary of his term in office.

The sarracena winner: 'Son of a b*tch'

One of the most upvoted messages in the thread proposes simply adding «Son of a b*tch», arguing that no one in Spain has been called it more times. It is the most aggressive expression on the list and, at the same time, the one that best captures the tone of part of the debate: politics reduced to insult. The author of the original message takes up the suggestion and adds it to the repertoire. There is no filter.

Alongside the crudest insults sit more elaborate inventions. «Pedro Melenchón» plays on his parliamentary closeness to Podemos's leader; «Pedro Underwood» nods to the series House of Cards; «Gollum» and «Satanchez» draw on pop culture. The mix of registers is the thread's defining trait: it is not a rant, it is a workshop of verbal engineering.

The proposed poll: knockout rounds like the Champions League

At one point in the thread, the idea comes up of organizing a poll so readers can choose the best nicknames, with knockout rounds from the last sixteen down to a single winner. The idea never gets off the ground in the available material, but it makes clear that the aim is not just venting: it is building a narrative. The definitive nickname, if one were chosen, would work as a label summarizing an entire term in office.

The problem with that exercise is that nicknames are not analysis. They are shortcuts. And, like all shortcuts, they say more about those who use them than about those who receive them. In the thread, though, there is room for reflection: alongside the names, references slip in to corruption, to the handling of the DANA floods, and to the figure of a prime minister who, according to a quote from Arturo Pérez-Reverte reproduced in the thread, would be starring in «the demolition of a State by a single man».

From mockery to the political frame

The thread is not just a list of names. Among the nicknames are messages pointing to specific matters: the investigation of relatives, the funding of a network of brothels, Segarro's use of Pegasus, Sánchez's exclusion from a European summit. These are accusations thrown around in the thread without evidence and, for the most part, not confirmed in court. The article does not reproduce them as facts: they are mentioned as part of the climate of opinion that feeds the nicknames.

The conversation also drifts into criticism of public media. One message complains that TVE did not cover a bout of booing against Sánchez, and another replies with the prime minister's face. It is the same old undercurrent: the suspicion that the official story does not match the street. The nicknames are the popular version of that suspicion.

The striking figure

The thread has 105 replies and is almost three years old. In all that time, the repertoire has kept growing. And yet, none of the nicknames has replaced his proper name in the media or in institutions. The most repeated label in the thread, «Dog», appears in no press headline. The nickname is catharsis, not category. What remains is the list: an unwitting document of how part of the electorate processes politics when the debate runs dry.