Scandal after scandal lands Spain’s Sánchez on the ropes

 

Scandal after scandal lands Spain’s Sánchez on the ropes

 

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for coalition allies to stick with the prime minister as the scale of alleged Socialist party corruption swells.

 

May 28, 2026 4:00 am CET

By Guy Hedgecoe

https://www.politico.eu/article/scandal-after-scandal-lands-spain-pedro-sanchez-on-the-ropes/

 

MADRID — Pummelled by corruption crises and stinging defeats in regional elections, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is running out of road.

 

Investigators raided the headquarters of his Socialist party on Wednesday in a probe into the misuse of party funds. That would have been bad enough in itself, but it’s only the latest episode in a blizzard of corruption scandals weighing on the party.

 

Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said the government is now in its “death throes” and demanded that Sánchez resign and call elections. “How many more raids? How many more kickbacks?” he asked.

 

For now, Sánchez’s fragile coalition is holding firm but it is becoming increasingly awkward for his allies to stick with him as the scale of the alleged Socialist party corruption comes into focus. Officially, Spain does not have to hold elections until next August but the prime minister may be forced for move earlier.

 

Much attention will center on a particularly high-profile case involving former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. He is due to appear in court on June 17 and the revelations are proving increasingly damaging for Sánchez.

 

It’s a complicated saga, but POLITICO will guide you through the key elements of the scandals that are submerging Spain’s leader.

 

Let’s start with Zapatero. What happened there?

An investigating judge suspects former Prime Minister Zapatero of leading a criminal network that used his influence to secure a €53 million Covid-era government bailout for Plus Ultra airline in 2021. Zapatero, investigators allege, received a total of €2.6 million from the network, which had links to Venezuela and China. The judge alleges much of the money went through companies run by his jogging partner, Julio Martínez, while a firm belonging to the former prime minister’s two daughters received a large portion of the funds. Zapatero, who has been charged with criminal organization, influence peddling and falsifying documents, denies any wrongdoing.

 

But Zapatero isn’t in the government, so this shouldn’t be too bad for Sánchez, right?

Wrong. Zapatero, who governed Spain from 2004 to 2011, has become a close ally of Sánchez, fiercely defending his government’s policies and being deployed to manage delicate negotiations with Basque and Catalan parliamentary allies. He is seen as an ideological soul-mate of Sánchez. What’s more, Sánchez was in government when the airline was bailed out, so questions are going to be asked about whether due process was followed when that decision was made.

 

What does Sánchez himself say about this?

So far, he’s stood resolutely by his predecessor. He has declared his administration’s “full cooperation with the justice system, full respect for the presumption of innocence of Mr Zapatero and all my support for [him].”

 

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.”

 

So how bad is all this for Sánchez?

Patience is wearing thin. Feijóo’s comments that Sánchez should go are entirely expected as are, to an extent, calls for next year’s general election to be brought forward by former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe González and the party’s powerful president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, both regular Sánchez critics. The key question is where the coalition and parliamentary partners stand. So far, there is no sign of an outright rebellion, but tensions are rising. The Basque Nationalist Party is warning it would be “very difficult” for Sánchez to see out the full legislature. The far-left Sumar party and the Republican Left of Catalonia are also warning that solid evidence of illegal party financing will be a red line for them.

 

Besides the legal cases, how are Sánchez and the Socialists doing?

It’s been a painful election season. A recent quartet of regional elections only deepened the gloom for Sánchez. In all four, the Socialists lost to the People’s Party. Earlier this month in Andalusia, once a Socialist stronghold, the party slumped to its worst result ever, under the candidacy of former Deputy Prime Minister María Jesús Montero — seen as a sign that the national leadership brand could be toxic. Polls suggest that if a general election were held tomorrow, the People’s Party would win and could form a majority with the far-right Vox party.

 

Can Sánchez hang on?

Much will hinge on how the current investigations play out, particularly the one involving Zapatero, with its potential to embroil the government. If illegal party financing is confirmed that is also likely to break the coalition. Sánchez is vowing to dig in and serve out the full term until summer 2027, saying he will only call a vote when it is in “the general interest of the citizens.” In truth, however, his hand may be forced by events.