PM ‘weighing resignation’ after wife’s graft probe
MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he was weighing the possibility of resigning after a court opened an investigation into his wife Begona Gomez on suspicion of graft.
“I need to stop and think” in order to decide “whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour”, he wrote in a letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.
He added that he would announce his decision on Monday and suspend his schedule until then.
A Madrid court said earlier on Wednesday that it had “opened an investigation into Begona Gomez for the alleged offence of influence peddling and corruption” in response to a complaint by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), an anti-corruption pressure group whose leader is linked to the far right. The court statement came several hours after online news site El Confidencial said investigators were probing Ms Gomez’s ties to several private companies that received government funding or won public contracts.
The site said the probe was linked to the alleged ties which Ms Gomez had with Spanish tourism group Globalia, which owns Air Europa.
It said she had twice met with Javier Hidalgo, Globalia’s CEO at the time, when the carrier was in talks with the government to secure a huge bailout after it was badly hit by the plunge in air traffic due to the Covid-19 crisis.
At the time, Ms Gomez was running IE Africa Center, a foundation linked to Madrid’s Instituto de Empresa (IE) business school, a position she left in 2022.
The announcement sparked an angry backlash from the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP), which has harangued Mr Sanchez for months about his wife’s alleged business ties.
But Socialist premier Mr Sanchez, in office since 2018, said in his letter that the complaint was based on “nonexistent” facts and was part of a campaign of “harassment” against his wife led by “ultraconservative” media and supported by the conservative and farright opposition.
“I am not naive. I am aware that they are bringing charges against Begona, not because she’s done anything illegal, because they know full well that’s not true, but because she’s my wife,” he added. Investigators are also looking into two letters of support Ms Gomez allegedly provided for a joint venture bidding for a public contract, El Confidencial said.
The joint venture’s main shareholder was consultant Carlos Barrabes, who has ties to the department run by Ms Gomez at Madrid’s Complutense University.
It won the contract, beating 20 rivals, and was awarded €10.2 million (405.1 million baht), it said. Questioned about the El Confidencial story, Mr Sanchez told lawmakers: “I still believe in Spain’s justice system.”