The woman signed letters of recommendations for important companies in Spain, who benefited from juicy contracts with the State. However, there is no firm evidence against her and, therefore, she is not charged.
The case caused a stir in Spain and led Sánchez to take a five-day break to decide whether to continue in office or resign. He finally decided to continue, and for the opposition it was just a political maneuver.
Sánchez interpreted the suspicions raised by a part of the press, as well as the opening of the judicial investigation as the latest proof of the toxic environment in which Spanish politics has been installed due to an alleged strategy of misinformation and attrition carried out by sectors of the extreme right. The Spanish president thus made his own usual narrative in the sectors to the left of the PSOE who point out that there is a politicization of the high judicial authorities, related to the right, as a result of some of their actions against Podemos or pro-independence politicians have been controversial.
Begoña Gómez, 49 years old, is marketing specialist. Count with one Master in Business Administration and has worked in fundraising for NGOs, such as Oxfam and Amnesty International.
Furthermore, he served as commercial consultant of the Inmark Group until Pedro Sánchez became president for the first time in 2018. At that time, the woman asked the company for a leave of absence to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
Shortly after her husband became president, Gómez was appointed director of the “Africa Center” of the private university IE from Madrid, a position he held until 2022.
There are two complaints against Gómez. The first one is done Clean handsa judicial group founded by right-wing sectors that defines itself as “anti-corruption.”
It is based on an investigation by the digital newspaper The confidentialwhere he unravels Gómez’s work at Africa Center with the Spanish tourism company Wakaluaof the Globalia group, which in turn is owner of Air Europa.
According to the report, Wakalua financed two scholarships from the Africa Center and paid for plane tickets for Gómez and another university authority in 2019. At the end of 2020, during the pandemic, The Sánchez government rescued Air Europaseriously affected by the drop in air traffic due to the health crisis.
Last year, Gómez returned to the Complutense University of Madrid – where since 2014 he had co-directed the Master’s Degree in Fundraising – to co-direct a master’s degree in Competitive Social Transformation. There are also suspicions about this link.
Through his position at the Complutense, signed letters of support to a technology entrepreneur so that it can obtain subsidies from the State to carry out courses for young people and the unemployed.
Manos Cleans assures that Gómez used her position as the President’s wife to influence business agreements. The court did not provide further information on the matter and noted that the investigation was under secrecy.
A second cause
Another complaint against Gómez and Sánchez arose in recent days, in this case before the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
The complainant, as revealed by the newspaper The reasonis the European Association of Citizens Against Corruption (AECC). They also accuse her of “crimes of influence peddling, complicity by omission and concealment, among others.”
Some of these companies benefited by the President’s wife, he points out, “have improved their turnover” by almost “4,000 percent”.
Gómez, the text of the complaint states, “has taken advantage of her status as the wife of the President of the Government to establish commercial and professional relationships with various companies and entities.”
However, like Clean Hands, the AECC does not provide concrete evidence. It only points out as proof of the crime that there are “letters of recommendation” made by women.
