A wave of political unrest swept over Spain on Thursday as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly considered resigning from office after a judge agreed to investigate his wife over allegations he and other officials denounced as a politically motivated smear campaign. .
The judge’s decision to take over the case, which was brought by a self-styled anti-corruption group based on online news reports of alleged influence peddling, prompted Mr. Sanchez’s decision. His supporters will rally behind him and prosecutors will move quickly Thursday to try to dismiss the case.
Sánchez, whose political survival skills have for years surprised both his supporters and detractors, wrote in a public letter on Wednesday that the accusations against his wife, Begoña Gómez, were false and amounted to harassment. Sánchez, one of Europe’s most prominent left-wing leaders, canceled his public agenda as he reflects on his next move. He plans to address the nation on Monday.
As Sánchez hunkered down with his family and resisted pleas from his allies to hit the campaign trail before key elections in the Catalonia region and for the European Parliament, his supporters talked of mobilizing demonstrations to persuade him to stay.
And a wide range of Spaniards, from the political elite to citizens on the streets, expressed their bewilderment at the unusual withdrawal of a prime minister who had recently regained his position in last summer’s elections, and at the country’s strange situation.
“It’s a disaster,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at the Carlos III University of Madrid, who said he was surprised by the deeply personal tone of Sánchez’s letter. He added that the investigation into Sánchez’s wife of 18 years had apparently provoked an emotional reaction because, politically speaking, “there were no clear incentives for this tactic; “It’s very risky.”
“He has done something unprecedented in a democracy,” Simón added, suggesting that the prime minister was betting that the public would find the investigation against his wife so scandalous as to provoke a national reckoning. Sánchez sought a “vote of social confidence,” he said, in which he asks the public, the media and even the establishment opposition to take sides and decide: “Do you consider this acceptable?”
The trigger for the sudden crisis was a Spanish judge’s decision to consider a complaint from Clean Hands, a group known for bringing court cases against politicians and other prominent Spaniards.
The group filed a complaint accusing Ms. Gomez of influence peddling and corruption, citing as possible evidence online news reports that it has acknowledged could contain false information. The judge ordered a preliminary investigation based on those online media reports.
Two of the articles allege that in 2020, Ms. Gómez signed two letters of recommendation to support a tender for a public contract by a group of companies with which she has personal and professional ties. The articles claim that the group’s main shareholder designed the master’s program that Ms. Gómez directed at the Complutense University of Madrid and that companies supported by Ms. Gómez competed with 20 rivals and won three contracts worth more than 10 million euros, or about 10.7 million dollars.
The Manos Cleans complaint also cited an article from online outlet El Confidencial that stated that Gómez met with representatives of Air Europa, a Spanish airline, in 2020 to sign a confidential agreement in which the airline would pay 40,000 euros a year ($43,000). to the African Center that he directed at a private university. Months later, the airline received more than 400 million euros in rescue funds during the pandemic.
In a statement, the Africa Center denied having “ever received financial contributions” from Air Europa’s parent company or its subsidiaries. He said the Center signed during Ms. Gómez’s tenure in 2020 a sponsorship deal with the airline’s parent company that included four plane tickets to a work event in London, which “was never executed” due to the pandemic. . He said Ms. Gomez’s 2018 contract specifically prevented the Center from benefiting from her “familial position.”
The Spanish press has widely reported that one of the reports cited by Clean Hands has already been proven incorrect. The online newspaper The Objective accused the government of hiding information that a grant had been awarded to the Prime Minister’s wife, but it turns out that the recipient of the subsidy She was a businesswoman in the restaurant sector who shares the same name as Mrs. Gómez.
The judge has summoned two journalists to testify about their reports. Mrs. Gómez, Mr. Sánchez’s wife, has not been summoned and has not commented on the complaint.
The government, however, has called the Manos Cleans complaint unfounded, arguing that Ms. Gómez did nothing irregular or inappropriate, and that headlines linking the prime minister to corruption ended up in the hands of the opposition that had thrown the mud first.
On Thursday, Spain’s independent prosecutor’s office filed what it called a “direct appeal” to the Madrid Provincial Court to dismiss the preliminary investigation.
Miguel Bernad, leader of Clean Hands, has acknowledged that the complaint could be based on false information.
“It will now be the judge who must verify whether said journalistic information is true or not,” he wrote in a statement.
Sánchez wrote in his public letter that the accusations against his wife, who played a key role in his political rise, were not true.
“We have been denying the falsehoods expressed, while Begoña has taken legal action so that these same digital companies rectify what, we maintain, is spurious information,” he wrote, adding that it was “an operation of harassment and demolition by land, sea and air to try to weaken me politically and personally by attacking my wife.”
In Spain, individual citizens of groups like Clean Hands can file legal complaints even when they are not personally involved and have not suffered harm. The group’s website describes its main objective as filing “all types of complaints against political or economic corruption that harms the public or general interest.”
In 2021, Spain’s National Court found the group guilty of using defamation campaigns to extort banks and companies. Spain’s Supreme Court overturned the decision because it said no crime had been committed, but called the group’s methods “reprehensible.”
Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, leader of the leftist Sumar coalition, echoed on Wednesday the allegations of a smear campaign and saying that right-wing forces “could not be allowed to win.”
But Spain’s main conservative opposition party, still smarting from failing to form a government despite receiving more votes than Sánchez, who outdid them by building a broader coalition, took the opportunity to attack a political enemy.
Accusing Sánchez of engaging in victimization for political gain, the center-right Popular Party insisted that the prime minister tell everything about “the scandals surrounding his party, his government and his partner.”
If Sánchez resigns, several procedures are likely to be carried out, experts said.
His government would assume a provisional status until Parliament agreed on a new candidate to try to form a governing coalition. Sánchez could also ask Parliament to decide whether he should remain through a vote of confidence that requires only a simple majority.
Sánchez could also call another early election, as he did after his party suffered a drubbing in last year’s regional elections.
At the time, he managed to gather enough support to block the formation of a government by the center-right Popular Party and the far-right Vox party. He then assembled a parliamentary majority from other rebellious and often opposing parties.
But calling early elections would carry risks, especially since the latest polls show his Socialist Party lagging behind the Popular Party.