Former
Spanish PM under criminal investigation as €53m bailout of airline examined
José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero, who denies any wrongdoing, ordered to appear at Spain’s
highest criminal court on suspicion of influence-peddling
Sam Jones
in Madrid
Tue 19
May 2026 14.08 BST
The
former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been placed
under investigation for alleged influence-peddling and other offences by a
judge examining the state bailout of a Venezuela-linked airline during the
Covid pandemic.
Zapatero,
a socialist who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2011, has been ordered to
appear before Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, on 2
June.
Although
other former and serving Spanish prime ministers have been called to testify in
corruption cases, this is the first time a former prime minister has been
placed under criminal investigation.
The
latest investigation is part of an inquiry into the €53m (£46m) state rescue of
the Spanish airline Plus Ultra in March 2021. Prosecutors are examining whether
the company made “inadequate use” of the public funds the government approved
for the bailout, while anti-corruption police are investigating whether the
airline used the rescue money to launder funds from Venezuela through France,
Switzerland and Spain.
According
to the investigating judge, Zapatero is alleged to have overseen “a
hierarchical structure of influence peddling”, whose purpose was “to obtain
economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before
public bodies in favour of third parties, mainly Plus Ultra”.
In a
statement released on Tuesday, the court said the judge had authorised police
to search Zapatero’s office as well as those of three other companies.
Zapatero
released a video in which he insisted on his innocence and stated his
willingness to cooperate with the investigation.
“I’d like
to reaffirm that all my public and private activity has always been conducted
with absolute respect for the law,” he said, adding he had never carried out
“any action” relating to the airline’s bailout.
Zapatero’s
denials echoed his appearance before a senate committee in March, where he said
he “had never taken any commissions from Plus Ultra”. But he did tell the
committee he had done some consultancy work for his friend Julio Martínez
Martínez, a businessman who worked with Plus Ultra and who was arrested by
anti-corruption officers in December last year.
Appearing
before the senate committee in February, Plus Ultra’s president, Julio Martínez
Sola, insisted that bailout had been conducted in complete compliance with the
relevant laws. “There was no exceptional procedure outside the norm; there was
no preferential treatment or undue interference; there was no illicit aid,” he
said. “There was a regulated process, with controls, reports, and very strict
conditions that have been met. Nobody has given us anything for free.”
Zapatero’s
socialist successor as prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing a series of
corruption allegations involving his family, his party and his administration.
Last
month, Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, was 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. The prime
minister’s younger brother, David Sánchez, is also facing trial this month on
charges of influence-peddling.
Both
Gómez and David Sánchez deny any wrongdoing, and the prime minister has accused
his political and media opponents of smearing and pursuing his family.
Two
senior former figures in Sánchez’s government are on trial for alleged
corruption. The prime minister’s former right-hand man, the former 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.
The
socialist party issued a statement in support of Zapatero on Tuesday, calling
him a pioneering prime minister whose “two terms were defined by an ambitious
programme to expand rights, equality, and social protection”. It added: “The
right and the far right have never forgiven him for these advances.”
The
opposition conservative People’s party described Zapatero’s as “Sánchez’s muse”
and said, “the principle that links Spain’s two most recent socialist prime
ministers is corruption … this indecency must end”.
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