A Spanish judge summoned Begoña Gómez to testify as under investigationwife of the president of the government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, in a case about alleged corruption in the private sector and influence peddling. The summons is part of the proceedings in which the judge investigates a series of public contracts awarded to companies of Juan Carlos Barrabésprofessor of the master’s degree at the Complutense University that Gómez co-directed. Pedro Sanchez He assured that both he and his wife are calm and He stressed that his decision to continue leading the Executive remains “firmer than ever”.
A loose complaint of papers
This Tuesday’s decision comes after the court last week rejected the Prosecutor’s Office request that recommended closing the investigation, having not found sufficient elements to continue it. It was also taken despite a report from the Civil Guardin which reported that he saw no crime. But for the Madrid court “there are indications about the alleged commission of a criminal act”, which “are more than simple suspicions” and “are sufficient” for the investigation to continue.
The investigations were opened following a complaint from a group close to the extreme right, Clean Hands, which admitted that it was based solely on journalistic articles. The general secretary of that organization, Miguel Bernad, said that, upon seeing that the Prosecutor’s Office “did not act ex officio,” he decided to file a complaint so that a court could “verify the veracity” of the news.
Bernad was recently acquitted by the Supreme Court after being convicted by the National Court of extorting banks and companies.. Clean Hands, the civil servants union created by Miguel Bernad in 1995, has a meager representation in the administrations and accumulates a long history of complaints and complaints, most of them archived, which in recent years it directed against Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Iglesias or Pere Aragonès, among others.
The Madrid court, by dismissing the Prosecutor’s appeal, limited the scope of the investigation, which initially focused on Begoña Gómez’s links with the general director of the Spanish tourism group Globalia, at the time when the latter was negotiating public aid for his airline Air Europa during the covid-19 pandemic.
The court dismissed that part of the case on the grounds that it was on an “implausible” basis and limited the investigations to public contracts awarded to a businessman who had professional relations with Gómez. Legal sources confirmed to the Europa Press agency that Judge of the Court of Instruction number 41 of Madrid, Juan Carlos Peinado will interrogate Gómez after listening, next Sunday, June 16, to several officials from Red.es who will appear as witnesses.
Gómez will have to go on July 5th with her lawyer, the former socialist Minister of the Interior Antonio Camacho, who represents her in these proceedings. When she appears as an investigator, she will be able to take advantage of her right not to testify or answer only the questions of her lawyer. Sánchez’s wife will not have the obligation to respond to the rest of the parties, including the Prosecutor’s Office or the popular accusations exercised by Clean Hands, Vox or the Political Regeneration Movement of Spain.
“They are trying to condition the elections”
Pedro Sánchez expressed his surprise at the fact that this judicial summons occurs in the middle of the campaign for the European elections, and left it to the reader to draw “their own conclusions”. In a letter, the president of the Spanish government denounced the existence of a “reactionary coalition” led by the conservative leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and by the president of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, whom he accused of “using all means to “to try to condition the elections” and force his resignation based on “hoaxes”.
Faced with this scenario, he asks that both leaders find “the response they deserve at the polls: condemnation and rejection of their bad arts.” 31 percent of Spaniards have not yet decided which party they will vote for next Sunday in the elections to the European Parliament, according to the latest survey by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), a public demoscopy organization. The poll gives the Socialist Party (PSOE) the favorite for these elections, ahead of the Popular Party (PP).
In the letter Sánchez also defends his wifewhich he says is “a hard-working and honest woman who claims her right to work without giving it up because of her husband’s responsibilities”, a right that he defends and affirms that both are calm. Regarding the closure, the ruler tells the citizens: “As for me, have no doubt that I will not will go bankrupt.”
The second vice president of the government and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, assured that she “respects” all judicial decisions, although she said that it is “striking” that it was notified a few days before the European elections. “I come from the world of law and the fact that the summons is notified today, if you allow irony, is at least striking. But hey, Despite all the tricks, we are going to continue working to give a democratic defeat to the PP“said the vice president.
From the other side, the opposition immediately celebrated the news and called for Sánchez’s resignation. The president of the government must “assume his political responsibility immediately” and “communicate to the nation what your decision is,” he wrote in X Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP. He later considered that the letter from the head of the Executive is an “insult” to the judges and to the Spanish people with which he seeks to “cover up the alleged corruption that reaches La Moncloa.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened in 46 years of democracy in Spain,” said the head of the opposition. Meanwhile, the far-right Vox celebrated the judge’s decision, considering it “inadmissible” that the wife of the president of the government is “under suspicion of a scandal of such magnitude.” “That’s what you have to do: declare and give explanations,” said Vox spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán.
Sánchez even took five days of reflection at the end of April to consider whether he would resign when it was learned that the judge had opened proceedings against his wife, and considered that it was a campaign of “harassment and demolition.” Finally he announced that he continued to lead the Executive “with even more strength if possible” and the commitment to “work tirelessly, with firmness and serenity for the pending regeneration” of Spanish democracy and the advancement and consolidation of rights and freedoms.
The accusations against Begoña Gómez sparked a diplomatic crisis with Argentina last month. Visiting Madrid to attend a Vox convention, President Javier Milei echoed the attacks by the Spanish right against Sánchez’s wife, referring to her as a “corrupt woman.” In response, Spain “definitively” withdrew its ambassador in Argentina.
