The Autocrat's Temptations: Teodoro León Gross in Spain's ABC

Teodoro León Gross publishes an article in ABC analyzing, based on Gideon Rachman's essay, the traits that define authoritarian leaders and their presence in elected democracies.

Columnist **Teodoro León Gross** published an article titled "The Autocrat's Temptations" in **ABC** on **October 14, 2026**. He addresses a phenomenon that, according to political scientist **Gideon Rachman**, is no longer confined to authoritarian systems: it is also common among politicians elected in democracies. The central thesis is that the term autocrat does not question the validity of the democratic system, but rather portrays the drift of a leader willing to strain the system's seams while showing contempt for its institutions.

## The authoritarian leader according to Gideon Rachman

Rachman, author of the essay "The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of Personality Threatens Democracy Around the World," describes a type of ruler who understands power in a personalist and populist way, and who does not hesitate to weaken institutions when it suits him. A canonical trait of this profile, Rachman notes, is intolerance of oversight by judges and journalists.

León Gross applies this framework to Spain's Prime Minister. He argues that Sánchez has spent the entire legislative term trying to discredit the courts and issuing verdicts from TV studios. As an example, he mentions that the party activated what he describes as a dirty-war apparatus against judges, prosecutors and judicial police during the investigation into Sánchez's vvife, and that Sánchez's circle spoke of "judicial and media coup-mongering." The article also notes that journalists are lectured on how to do their jobs, and that any critical reporting is dismissed as pseudo-journalism.

## Governing by decree and bypassing the legislature

The text states that Sánchez had already announced he would bypass the legislative branch, as the columnist says he has done in every parliamentary question session, using the Bureau (the chamber's governing board) as if it were a Government Delegation. It adds that he has governed by decree and is now pushing through a Permanent Council session of questionable constitutionality due to its asymmetric arithmetic.

León Gross anticipates that the election campaign will be a lottery of decrees and budget handouts. And for everything else, he writes, the "Candid Tribunal" — an ironic reference to Spain's Constitutional Court.

## Populism as an electoral tool

The article describes populism as inherent to this type of leader. According to León Gross, Sánchez has not written off power, and the campaign will be a festival of turbo-populist Manichaeism. He cites slogans such as "with Maricarmen or with the vultures," "the right or rights," "with the evicted or with the penthouse owners," and "grandchildren of Francoism or grandchildren of exile."

The columnist notes that in the very first weekend of campaign rallies, contempt for elites was brandished against the virtuous people, denouncing that Congress turns its back on what people experience in the street. In his view, there national sovereignty is replaced by Puerta del Sol (the seat of the Prime Minister's office). He also criticizes talk of "the social majority" as if it meant "we are more" rather than counting votes.

## A phenomenon no longer foreign to the West

León Gross closes his analysis with a quote from Rachman: until recently, this kind of behavior was considered foreign to the mature democracies of the West. The article's implication is that this exceptionality is no longer true.

The text relies on a recognized academic framework to describe a specific political drift. It is not an isolated opinion, but the application of a category analyzed by a leading author in international relations. The piece invites readers to interpret political events in light of a pattern that transcends borders.