Sánchez government caught up in multiple corruption scandalspublished at 09:56 BST
09:56 BST
Image source, ReutersImage caption,
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, is currently facing corruption charges
Pedro Sánchez’s government has been marred by corruption investigations in recent months.
In May, police raided Madrid’s headquarters of his Socialist Party and seized a number of documents.
It was part of an investigation into allegations that an operative, Leire Díez, was paid to carry out a campaign of misinformation aimed at impeding legal cases affecting the party. She denied doing anything wrong.
In April, Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, was charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds following a two-year criminal investigation.
She is accused of using her relationship to advance her private career through a position at Madrid’s Complutense University. She is also accused of using public resources to advance private interests.
Gómez denies the charges, while Sánchez dismissed the allegations as an attempt by the right-wing to undermine his coalition.
Meanwhile, former Socialist prime minister and close Sánchez ally José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is being investigated on suspicion of using his political influence to help secure a bailout for the Plus Ultra airline in 2021, and for potentially benefiting financially from the deal.
Zapatero has repeatedly denied doing anything wrong.
Sánchez’s former transport minister, Jose Luis Abalos, was jailed to 24 years in prison in June for a slew of offences, including corruption, after he was found guilty of being involved in a network that received kickbacks from the sale of facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sánchez’s brother, David, was convicted in July of administrative misconduct and banned from holding public office for nine years in July over his appointment to a cultural post in Badajoz in 2017.