No date has been set for the politically sensitive trial, which adds to a series of scandals affecting Sánchez’s government.
The charges come in a case stemming from a complaint by the ultra-Catholic association Hazte Oír and far-right groups including the political party Vox.
Gómez, who denies any wrongdoing, is accused of exploiting her position as the prime minister’s wife for private gain through the creation and management of a chair at the Complutense University of Madrid, which she co-directed, as well as the alleged use of public funds and personal connections to advance private interests.
A Spanish government official quoted by the Spanish newspapers El País and El Confidencial said that Saturday’s ruling contained “a note of the persecution, obsession and disproportion of a judge who has carried out an investigation that lacks all legal sense and that only deals with political motives.”
El País described the decision by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado as “an unprecedented measure in the recent democratic history of Spain.”
Peinado’s decision comes just a few days after former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a long-time ally of Sánchez, appeared before a court in Madrid to answer questions from judges about a €53 million public bailout granted during the Covid pandemic to the small airline Plus Ultra.
Zapatero firmly rejected any suggestion that he had exerted influence over the bailout.