Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants you to know that rumors of his imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated.
For several weeks, right-wing social media accounts have spread a rumor that the socialist leader is being treated for a terminal heart condition.
The prime minister — a frequent target of fake news posts — initially ignored the allegations, but finally hit back Thursday with an unusual post on social media.
“I don’t suffer from any cardiovascular disease, but even if I did, there wouldn’t be any problem,” Sánchez wrote. “There are millions of people who do suffer from them and lead normal lives thanks to the public services that [right-wing forces] dismantle.”
Sánchez’s post came days after a right-wing tabloid published a story alleging Sánchez is being treated for a deadly cardiovascular condition at a public hospital in Madrid.
During a plenary session of the Spanish parliament on Wednesday, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a lawmaker in the center-right People’s Party group, alluded to the article and demanded Justice Minister Félix Bolaños clarify if the prime minister “has a health problem.”
In his post on X, Sánchez lamented that after spending years predicting the imminent fall of his successive governments, right-wing forces keen to usher him out of office were now “spreading hoaxes about [his] health.”
The prime minister chastised the People’s Party for basing its opposition to his rule on “lies” and said the rumors were nonsense: “This government will be around for a good while longer.”
