Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez decided on Monday to remain in the post he has held since the summer of 2018, although earlier this month a judge in Madrid opened an investigation into his wife for possible corruption.
“I have decided to continue, with an even stronger force at the head of the government,” Sanchez said in a speech from the government building.
Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), suspended all duties on Wednesday to “consider” for five days whether it is worth staying in office due to “false accusations” and “attacks on his wife”.
“They are trying to break me because of who I am (…),” he said. “My wife and I know that this discrediting campaign will not stop. We have endured this abuse for 10 years,” he added in his address. Journalists were not allowed to ask questions during the address.
On April 16, a judge in Madrid opened an investigation into Begonia Gomez based on texts published in the online newspaper El Confidential. Gomez is suspected of writing a recommendation to private companies that applied for public tenders, and also of the relationship with the airline Air Europa during 2020, while that airline was saved by the government with public money. Sánchez’s wife is the head of the postgraduate study on entrepreneurship at the Complutense Public University in Madrid. An investigation should establish whether she was in a conflict of interest.
The application to the court was filed by the union Manjos limpias (Clean Hands), which the government accuses of belonging to the “extreme right” and participating in the “attempt to overthrow the government.”
Sánchez formed a minority left-wing party six months ago with the parliamentary support of the separatist parties of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia.
Over the weekend, his PSOE and partner parties accused the opposition right of not recognizing the election results.
The state attorney, who was appointed by the king in 2022 at the suggestion of the Sánchez government, asked last week to stop the investigation, stating that “there are no indications of a criminal act.”
The opposition parties, the center-right People’s Party and Vox, demanded an “accountability” from Sanchez and accused him of “pressure on the courts”.
