Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Wednesday in a “letter to the people” that he is considering resigning from the government, citing months of right-wing attacks on his family.
“I am not attached to this position… My commitment is to a sense of duty and public service”
The Spanish prime minister’s decision comes hours after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had opened a preliminary investigation into whether his wife, Begonia Gomet, used her government connections to advance her private business interests.
On Wednesday morning, a single-member court of first instance in Madrid accepted a lawsuit filed by a well-known far-right group, which constantly files lawsuits on every issue and most of them fall into the void, against the wife of Pedro Sanchez.
Sanchez announced in a letter posted to X that he was suspending his political agenda for several days to “think.” “I need time to think and decide whether I will continue to head the government or renounce this high honor,” Sanchez wrote in a four-page letter posted on his X account.
The Prime Minister of Spain refers to the attacks that both he and his wife suffer from the right and extreme right. “I urgently need to answer a question I keep asking myself: Is it worth it to stay in office despite the mudslinging of the right and far right?”
“Despite the caricature of the right about my person, I am not attached to this position… My commitment is to the sense of duty and public service,” adds the Spanish prime minister.
Sanchez concluded his letter by announcing that he will address the nation on Monday (29/4) and reveal whether or not he will resign.
After a complaint by a far-right group
A judge in Madrid has opened an investigation against Begonia Gomet, for possible influence peddling and corruption offenses in her private business dealings.
The process began after a lawsuit was filed by Manos Limpias, or “Clean Hands,” a union with ties to ultranationalist groups notorious for filing legal challenges linked to far-right causes.
According to the online news website El Confidencial which 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 the head of the government.
In the complaint, Manos Limpias alleges that Gometh had a relationship with an influential businessman who obtained contracts from the Spanish public administration with her help.
What does the complaint say?
The businessman named in the complaint is Carlos Barabes, whose consulting company – in a temporary union with another company – won contracts in 2020 and 2021 from public body Red.es, which belongs to the Ministry of Economy.
Barabes, as mentioned in the complaint, allegedly had the express support of Gomet, who in a letter gave her approval to the company, as reported by El Confidencial.
Investigators are particularly interested in her ties to the Spanish travel group Globalia, which owns Air Europa, at a time when the latter was in talks with the government to secure aid following a major 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’s IE University, a position she 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 Intaglco at a time when Globalia was negotiating its multi-million dollar rescue plan million euros with the government”.
This plan allowed the granting of €475 million to Air Europa in November 2020.
Tags: Pedro Sanchez Thoughts resigning due wifes investigation corruption scandal
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