Spanish
PM’s brother banned from public office after misconduct trial
Conviction
over hiring by socialist-led council is one of a series of corruption claims
facing Pedro Sánchez’s family
Sam Jones
in Madrid
Tue 14
Jul 2026 14.38 BST
The
brother of Spain’s prime minister has been banned from holding public office
for nine years after being found guilty of administrative misconduct relating
to his hiring by a socialist-led council in the south-western region of
Extremadura nine years ago.
Corruption
allegations involving Pedro Sánchez’s family, his government and his Spanish
Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) have triggered repeated opposition calls for a
snap general election. All the accused have denied wrongdoing.
David
Sánchez, a composer and orchestra conductor, was one of 11 people who went on
trial in May accused of influence peddling and misuse of office. The case
originated with a complaint brought by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a
self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a long history of using
the courts to pursue those it deems to pose a threat to Spain’s democratic
interests.
According
to the complaint, David Sánchez was handed a bespoke job as coordinator of
public music schools by the socialist-led council of the south-western province
of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the PSOE
but not yet prime minister.
Sánchez,
who had denied the charges, was found guilty of administrative misconduct but
cleared of influence peddling by a court in Badajoz on Tuesday.
In its
ruling, the court said the creation of the job to which he had been appointed
had not been “necessary or urgent”, adding that it had been developed “in the
particular interest of its assignee and not in the general interest”.
But it
also ruled that it had not been proved that “anyone had exerted pressure or
influence … [nor that] anyone had taken advantage of the exercise of the powers
of a position or any other situation derived from a personal or hierarchical
relationship”.
Had
Sánchez been found guilty of influence peddling, he could have faced a
three-year prison sentence. Nine of his co-defendants were also found guilty of
administrative misconduct and handed nine-year bans from public office, while
Miguel Ángel Gallardo, the PSOE’s former leader in Extremadura, was banned from
holding public office for 18 years after being found guilty of two counts of
misconduct. The verdicts can be appealed.
Pedro
Sánchez has previously accused his political and media enemies of launching a
“harassment and bullying operation” against his family.
His wife,
Begoña Gómez, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the prime
minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of
using public resources and personal connections to further her private
interests. She faces trial after a judge charged her with embezzlement,
influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of
funds at the end of a two-year investigation.
The prime
minister has maintained that his wife and brother are the victims of
politically motivated smear campaigns, and has said: “The truth will come out
in the end. My brother and my wife are innocent.”
He has
also openly questioned the independence of some members of Spain’s judiciary.
“There’s no doubt that there are judges doing politics and there are
politicians trying to do justice,” he said in a TV interview last September.
Alberto
Núñez Feijóo, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP), said it
was the third case in which a member of the prime minister’s circle had been
convicted.
In
November last year, Spain’s attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was banned
from his post for two years after being found guilty of leaking confidential
information about a tax case involving a businessman who is the boyfriend of a
prominent rightwing politician. At the end of June, the former PSOE transport
minister José Luis Ábalos was jailed for 24 years for taking bribes on public
contracts for sanitary equipment such as face masks during the Covid pandemic.
“It
speaks well of our rule of law that no one is above the law, no matter which
family they belong to,” said Feijóo. “That should comfort Spaniards.”
Santiago
Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, greeted news of David Sánchez’s
conviction by once again labelling the PSOE a “mafia”.
The
government’s outspoken transport minister, Óscar Puente, hit back, suggesting
the socialists’ opponents were using the courts to achieve what they could not
manage in polling stations.
“The
period will be studied in history books as a time when the seams of our most
important institutions were strained with the sole purpose of bringing down a
government because some people couldn’t do it at the ballot box,” he said.
The
government’s spokesperson, Elma Saiz, told reporters that the Sánchez
administration believed that justice would eventually be done.
“We trust
in justice and think that David Sánchez’s innocence – in which we believe –
will be established by higher courts,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
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