Spain’s PM Is Considering Resigning After Wife Is Charged With Corruption

Madrid: Following the opening of a judicial inquiry against his wife Begona Gomez on allegations of fraud, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday that he was considering his options, including perhaps stepping down.

His letter was uploaded on X, previously Twitter. “I need to stop and think” before deciding “whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour,” he said.

He continued by saying he would stop his program until Monday, when he would make his announcement.

On Wednesday, a Madrid court said that it had “opened an investigation into Begona Gomez for the alleged offence of influence peddling and corruption” in response to a complaint filed by the far-right pressure organization Clean Hands, whose head opposes corruption. Manos Limpias made the complaint.

The court declaration was released a few hours after El Confidencial, an online news outlet, reported that Gomez’s connections to many private businesses that had obtained public contracts or received government support were being investigated by authorities.

According to the website, the investigation is related to Gomez’s purported connections to Globalia, the Spanish travel company that controls Air Europa.

It said that she had met twice with Globalia’s CEO, Javier Hidalgo, during the carrier’s negotiations with the government to get a sizable bailout after it suffered greatly from the decline in air traffic brought on by the Covid-19 issue.

In 2022, Gomez resigned from her role as director of the IE Africa Center, a foundation affiliated with Madrid’s Instituto de Empresa (IE) business school.

The right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP), which has been harassing Sanchez for months over his wife’s purported business connections, replied angrily to the news.

However, socialist prime minister Sanchez, who has been in power since 2018, said in his letter that the complaint was based on “non-existent” facts and that it was a part of a “harassment” campaign against his wife that was backed by the far-right and conservative opposition as well as “ultraconservative” media.

“I’m not gullible. I know full well that they are charging Begona not because she has broken any laws—they know full well that’s untrue—but rather because she is my wife,” he said.

Conversations during the rescue of the airlines
El Confidencial said that Gomez had met with Hidalgo in private at the company’s headquarters, and that IE Africa Center had “signed a sponsorship agreement with Globalia in 2020”.

“At the same time Globalia was negotiating a multi-million-euro bailout with the government,” it said.

Globalia revealed to El Confidencial last month that Hidalgo and Gomez had met on June 24 and July 16 at its headquarters in Madrid.

In the meanwhile, the administration of Sanchez declared on July 3 the establishment of a 10-billion-euro fund to support the key companies most severely impacted by Covid-19.

After four months, his cabinet gave Air Europa, the first Spanish firm to get the money, a 475 million euro lifeline.

El Confidencial said that investigators are also looking into two letters of support that Gomez reportedly sent for a joint venture that was submitting a proposal for a governmental contract.

The principal stakeholder of the joint company was Carlos Barrabes, a consultant with connections to Gomez’s department at Complutense University of Madrid.

It said that after defeating twenty competitors, it was granted a contract of 10.2 million euros.

“Trumpesque practices” Miguel Bernad is the attorney leading Manos Limpias, the organization that brought the case.

In 2021, Bernad was found guilty of extorting large corporations and was given a four-year prison term. However, due to a lack of evidence, the Supreme Court cleared her last month.

When asked about the El Confidencial incident during Wednesday’s parliamentary session, Sanchez responded to the questions by saying, “Despite everything, I still believe in Spain’s justice system.”

Ester Munoz, a senior PP official, clarified that it was “imperative”.

“His family is being investigated by the court… it is important enough that the prime minister explains himself to the Spanish people.”

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo had informed Sanchez at a parliamentary session last month that there would be an inquiry.

“If you refuse to give explanations again… there will be a specific investigation into matters affecting those closest to you, a parliamentary probe for sure, and a judicial one if necessary.”

However, Maria Jesus Montero, Sanchez’s deputy and minister of budget, retaliated.

“They are using a spurious complaint by a far-right organisation to defame and slander the prime minister,” she said.

“We will not let these Trumpesque practices undermine Spain’s democracy.”