The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez announced tonight, in a letter posted on Platform X, that he is “considering” the possibility to resignafter it became known that a preliminary investigation was launched against his wife for corruption and undue influence.
“I need to stop and think” in order to decide, as he says, “if I should continue as head of government or renounce this honor,” Sanchez writes.
The Spanish Prime Minister intends to announce his decision on Monday and will cease operations until then.
Begonia Gomet: Corruption scandal touches the first lady of Spain
But this morning, Spain’s 52-year-old Socialist prime minister took 20 minutes of parliamentary time to state the obvious: “Above all I believe in justice.”
The reason; That the scandal involving his 49-year-old wife is dangerously affecting him and his government. A Spanish court announced today that launched a preliminary investigation against his wife for “exercise of influence” and “corruption”, following a lawsuit filed by a union of civil servants considered to be on the far right.
The investigation against Begonia Gometh for alleged “exercise of influence and corruption” started on April 16 following a lawsuit by the association “Manos limpias” (Clean Hands), the Madrid court said in a brief statement.
According to the online news site The Confidential that disclosed the information, this preliminary investigation concerns Begonia Gomet’s relations with private companies that had received state aid during the Covid-19 crisis or signed contracts with the state while her husband was head of government.
Investigators are particularly interested in her relations with the Spanish tourism group Globaliato which the airline belongs Air Europaat a time when the latter was in talks with the government to secure aid following the big drop in air traffic caused by the health crisis.
During that time, Begonia Gomet directed the IE Africa Center, an institution linked to the business school of Madrid IE University, a position she held from 2018 and left in 2022.
According to El Confidencial, the IE Africa Center had “signed a sponsorship agreement with Globalia in 2020” and Begonia Gomet had participated in a “private meeting with its CEO Javier Intaglio while Globalia was negotiating its multi-million euro bailout plan with the government.”
This plan resulted in the granting of €475 million to Air Europa in November 2020.
Who is 49-year-old Begonia?
Born in Bilbao but raised in the city of Valderras, in the province of León, the Spanish “first lady” has a degree in Marketing from the prestigious ESIC school and a master’s degree in Business Administration.
The couple met in 2003 at a birthday party of a close friend of Pedro Sanchez when he was 31 and she was 28. As they have said in their interviews, their love was lightning fast, while the informal “first lady” of Spain has said that she keeps the love letters from the first period of their acquaintance “like gold”. Since then, they have never been apart from each other.
A few months after they met, Pedro moved into Begonia’s apartment in the La Latina neighborhood in central Madrid.
In 2005, their first daughter Ainoa was born. The marriage proposal took place shortly afterwards during a dinner party. They got married in a civil ceremony in 2006 at the Madrid City Hall. The couple moved into a detached house in Pozuelo de Alarcón, on the outskirts of Madrid. In 2007, their second daughter, Carlota, was born.
Both Begonia and Pedro talking about how they love to have fun have revealed that they listen to indie music and their favorite bands are La habitación roja, The Killers or artists like Björk.
The couple have a Mojácar country house in south-eastern Spain, where they spend their holidays.
Begonia Gomet has expertise in fundraising for various non-governmental organisations, Oxfam and Amnesty International, and has worked for multinationals such as Ono and Deutsche Bank.
He spoke for 20 minutes
Answering a question in Spain’s Parliament, Pedro Sanchez said he has confidence in justice. “A day like today, after the news I heard, I still believe in the justice of my country” he stated.
After the first press revelations about this case, the Spanish right is multiplying its attacks against the prime minister.
The announcement of the launch of the investigation is “important enough that the head of government has to give explanations to the Spanish”, Esther Munioth, a member of the leadership of the right-wing People’s Party (PP), told reporters today.
THE “Clean hands”founded in 1995, has brought many lawsuits in recent years and was the civil plaintiff in several corruption trials.
It is considered to be close to the far right, mainly because of its secretary general Miguel Bernard, a former party official National Front founded in 1983 dissolved in 1993. According to a New York Times report, since 2009 the association has had no legal representation.
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