Spain: Sanchez mulls resignation – Suspends public appearances amid investigation into wife

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced that he will abstain from public duties in order to “pause and think” if he wants to continue at the forefront of politics, in a letter shared on his X social media account.

“I urgently need an answer to the question of whether it is worth it (…) whether I should continue to lead the government or renounce this honor”Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in his letter.

The shock announcement came after a Spanish court announced earlier on Wednesday that it was opening a preliminary investigation into whether Sanchez’s wife, Begona Gomet, committed a crime in her private dealings.. On Wednesday, a Spanish court announced it had opened an investigation following a criminal complaint by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a small union known for its legal action against corruption. The investigation targets 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. At the time, Begonia Gomet ran the IE Africa Center, an institution linked to Madrid’s IE University business school, a position she left in 2022. The court did not provide further details as the case is confidential and preliminary.

Manos Limpias uses a unique Spanish legal instrument known as “the people’s accusation” to file criminal complaints against third parties. Judges can choose whether or not to act on such complaints, and not every allegation has led to a judicial investigation. However, some cases have led to indictments: Manos Limpias’ allegations against Princess Cristina, the youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos, led to her prosecution for allegations that we engaged in tax fraud. Her husband was convicted of fraud and tax evasion but acquitted.

The organization that filed the legal complaint is a “far-right” group, Sanchez said. The scandal has been widely covered for weeks by groups of news websites, most of them critical of the government. In his letter, Sanchez said the judge would call as witnesses the heads of those “clearly right-wing and far-right” websites. Sanchez also said opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijo, who leads the conservative Popular Party (PP), and Santiago Abascal, of the far-right Vox party, are pursuing a strategy of “harassment and demolition” that has been targeting him for months.

Gometh, who has mostly kept a low public profile since her husband became prime minister in 2018, has been in the spotlight after reports she once had a business relationship with the owners of the tourism company, which received heavy government support in during the pandemic. The People’s Party seized the opportunity to attack Sanchez, calling on the prime minister and his wife to give an official explanation. To avoid a conflict of interest, the PP says Sanchez should have recused himself from a cabinet meeting in which the corporate bailout was approved.

With information from Bloomberg, Reuters