Spanish
prime minister’s wife charged with corruption
Pedro
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, and two others charged after investigation
triggered by group with far-right links
Sam Jones
in Madrid
Tue 14
Apr 2026 11.58 BST
Begoña
Gómez, the wife of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been charged with
embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and
misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in
Madrid.
Gómez,
55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist 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.
The
judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, has also charged Gómez’s personal assistant,
Cristina Álvarez, and a businessman, Juan Carlos Barrabés, in connection with
the case.
All the
accused have denied wrongdoing.
The
investigation into Gómez was triggered by a complaint from Manos Limpias (Clean
Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a history of
using the courts to pursue those it deems a threat to Spain’s democratic
interests.
Sánchez
had repeatedly dismissed the case against his wife as a baseless and
politically motivated smear. The prime minister has accused his political and
media opponents of pursuing his family and has also openly questioned the
impartiality of some members of the judiciary.
In his
39-page ruling, Peinado suggested that “certain public decisions favourable to
the [university chair], which could have been obtained through a unique
exploitation of her relational position, had been taken since Gómez’s husband
became secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party and, above
all, since he became prime minister”.
The judge
also said there was evidence of behaviour at the Moncloa palace – the prime
minister’s office and official residence – that “seems more in keeping with
that of absolutist regimes and which has, fortunately, been forgotten in our
state over the years”.
The prime
minister, who said last year “there’s no doubt that there are judges doing
politics and there are politicians trying to do justice”, said he was confident
justice would be served and his wife would be cleared.
“What I
ask of the justice system is that it delivers justice,” Sánchez said during a
visit to China on Tuesday. “That justice be served. And since I’m convinced
that time will put everything and everyone in their place, I have nothing more
to say.”
Peinado,
who faces mandatory retirement as a judge in September, has given parties in
the case five days to respond to his decision. The courts will then decide
whether Gómez will face a jury trial.
The
decision to formally charge Gómez comes at a fraught time for Sánchez as the
prime minister’s younger brother, David, is due to be tried next month on
charges of influence-peddling. According to another complaint from Manos
Limpias, David Sánchez was handed a bespoke job by the socialist-led council of
the south-western city of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the
national leader of the socialist party. He denies the charges.
Meanwhile,
two senior former figures in Sánchez’s government are on trial for alleged
corruption. The prime minister’s former right-hand man, the ex-transport
minister José Luis Ábalos, is accused – along with his former aide Koldo García
and the businessman Víctor de Aldama – of taking kickbacks on public contracts
for sanitary equipment during the Covid pandemic. Ábalos and García, who deny
all charges, are facing sentences of 24 years and 19 years respectively while
Aldama, who has already admitted to his part in the alleged scheme, faces a
seven-year sentence.
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