This isn’t the only scandal affecting the Sánchez government, is it?
No. Last June, Sánchez was forced to apologize after it emerged that his confidant and Socialist Party No. 3, Santos Cerdán, was under investigation for involvement in a massive public contract kickback scheme. Also caught up in that scandal was José Luis Ábalos, a former senior figure in the Socialist Party and transport minister, who had already been under investigation. Deepening the party’s embarrassment, evidence also emerged that Ábalos paid prostitutes on a number of occasions. Both men have denied involvement in the kickback scheme.
Ábalos has already gone on trial once, alongside his former adviser, Koldo García and businessman Víctor de Aldama, accused of taking kickbacks from the purchase of €50 million-worth of facemasks during the pandemic. They are awaiting the verdict but are expected to face trial again in the future over other probes.
That all sounds pretty serious.
It is, although the immediate fallout from Ábalos’ involvement was mitigated by the fact he had left the cabinet in 2021 and was kicked out of the party soon after he came under suspicion, in 2024. The Cerdán case was worse because Sánchez had defended his innocence in the face of lurid media reports, right up until details of the investigation were made public, when he was still a senior figure in the party.
So the Socialist Party is in the center of the storm here?
Yes, and on Wednesday, police seized documents from the Socialist headquarters in central Madrid as part of a probe into allegations that party money had been used to pay journalist Leire Díez to wage a campaign to undermine legal cases affecting the government and its allies. She denies any wrongdoing and has claimed she was researching a book. Among those named as suspects in this case are Cerdán and Ana María Fuentes, the Socialist Party’s federal director. Separately, Díez is being investigated for misuse of public funds.
Are there any more cases affecting Sánchez?
Yes, actually. In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, a government pick, was found guilty of revealing secrets in a highly controversial case. García Ortiz was accused of making public the tax affairs of the boyfriend of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the populist, conservative president of the Madrid region, who had committed tax fraud. Although no direct evidence against García Ortiz was presented, he was barred from office for two years.
OK, but at least Sánchez himself is not directly implicated in any of these cases, is he?
No, but some of his family are. Since 2024, a judge has been zealously investigating the business and professional affairs of his wife, Begoña Gómez, naming her as a suspect in several alleged crimes. Also, Sánchez’s musician brother, David, is currently on trial in the southern city of Badajoz, accused of influence peddling in his appointment to a local musical director post in 2017. Among his co-defendants are several local Socialist Party members. Sánchez has drawn a distinction between probes such as those into Ábalos and Cerdán, and those he deems politically motivated, like the cases involving his brother and his wife, the latter. He has described the latter as an “obscene farce.”