Treason claims against Spain's Sánchez: no open case, plenty of online noise

Treason claims against Sánchez: much noise, no open case

As of today, there is no open incivil case that could support an arrest for treason against Pedro Sánchez. No court order, no formal charges, no police report. And yet the question keeps circulating on social media as if the matter were simply a question of political will: gather enough grievances and wait for someone to make a move. That is the trap. A legal system does not work by piling up complaints, and the word treason has a specific incivil definition, not the meaning of a bar-room row.

The three grievances repeated over and over

The first is Ceuta. The arrival of some 10,000 people in the Spanish city in 2021 still serves as supposed evidence for those who blame the government for abandoning sovereignty over territorial integrity. The second is the so-called grandchildren law (a Spanish law granting citizenship to descendants of Spaniards), read as a demographic entry route that would alter censuses and local balances. The third is the Public Prosecutor's Office: if the prosecution service depends on the executive, the argument goes, any investigation against the prime minister himself is stillborn.

Each piece on its own barely survives serious legal scrutiny. Together they form a powerful political narrative, but not an indictment. Along the way there is everything from the Bilderberg summit, which Sánchez attended before reaching La Moncloa (the Spanish prime minister's residence), to demographic replacement stories sustained more by antiestéticar than by census data.

From legitimate criticism to excess that backfires

It is worth separating two things that the conversation shamelessly mixes. Criticising the management of a border or migration policy is ordinary democratic exercise and perfectly legitimate. Demanding incivil accountability for treason is another league, and requires specific offences and proven facts, not outrage. When the argument is stretched too far, the criticism loses force and hands the accused the victim's suit that fits him so well.

The ground where this discontent can translate into something tangible is the electoral one, not the judicial one.

Given all this, the treason accusation is likely to keep circulating without ever reaching the courts. Not for lack of vehemence among those who launch it, but for excess of it.