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.

Sánchez has one year until Spain’s election deadline. The odds are against him.

 Sánchez has one year until Spain’s election deadline. The odds are against him.

 

The prime minister is still facing heat over the Ceuta crisis and a raft of Socialist Party corruption scandals. An early election could make sense.

 

August 21, 2026 4:00 am CET

By Aitor Hernández-Morales

https://www.politico.eu/article/pedro-sanchez-has-one-year-until-spain-election-deadline-the-odds-are-against-him/

 

We are now one year away from the latest possible date — Aug. 22, 2027 — that Spain can hold a general election.

 

For embattled Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, it looks like it’s going to be a bruising ride to get that far. He insists he will seek reelection, brushing aside the predictions that he is doomed by pointing to his well-established knack for defying political gravity.

 

But this time, the odds are especially stacked against him and his fragile minority government, which has never appeared so isolated.

 

The challenges that lie ahead are so daunting that Sánchez could well chuck the schedule and call for an early vote.

 

Here’s why he’s up against it.

 

Rough rentrée

Summers have historically been kind to Sánchez.

 

In the past, the seasonal break helped reduce the heat generated by crises like the June 2025 arrest of high-ranking Socialist Party official Santos Cerdán for allegedly awarding public works contracts in exchange for kickbacks. The prime minister was no doubt hoping a similar scenario would play out following this spring’s high-profile indictment of his ally, former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on money-laundering charges, and after a major raid on his party’s headquarters as part of a separate criminal investigation.

 

But just days before he was due to head off on a beach break on the island of Lanzarote, Sánchez’s summer was upended by a surge of 72,000 migrants into Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in northern Africa. Even though the prime minister did eventually resume his scheduled vacation, the Ceuta crisis has continued to dominate the news. Thousands of unauthorized migrants remain in the city, with local authorities complaining Madrid isn’t doing enough to address overwhelmed hospitals and other public services.

 

The government is bound to face tough grillings over security failures, whether intelligence warnings went unheeded and whether something went badly wrong in relations with Morocco. The Ceuta debacle also left Sánchez looking painfully isolated on the EU stage, with 22 leaders writing a letter suggesting his liberal migration policies could have helped attract the influx.

 

Nearly a third of Sánchez’s ministers have been summoned to testify at extraordinary hearings in the Spanish parliament next week, and the prime minister himself is due to face tough questions when plenary sessions resume in September.

 

So much for a fresh start.

 

Budget bloodbath

The fall promises no relief for Spain’s prime minister, who faces defeat in a battle over the national cashflow.

 

The minority government has been unable to pass a single budget bill during this legislative term, and has been operating on the spending plan approved by Sánchez’s previous government in December 2022. The Socialist leader has vowed to submit a draft budget for 2027 this fall, but it is almost certain to be rejected by lawmakers.

 

A major obstacle is the Catalan separatist Together for Catalonia group, whose support is key to getting any legislation passed. The party voted down the deficit framework for the draft budget this summer, with its spokesperson, Josep Rius, characterizing the long-shot legislation as “yet another Sánchez frivolity.”

 

The separatists were instrumental in getting Sánchez a third stint as prime minister in 2023, but relations have since soured, with the party now accusing the government of reneging on its commitments to Catalonia, and refusing to back budget plans it considers to be Madrid-centric.

 

But the prime minister is determined to move forward, raising questions about his motivation to present a doomed budget bill.

 

“There’s growing speculation that Sánchez may want to call voters to the polls as early as March, and the budget’s failure would provide him with an excuse to do so” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, who pointed out that Spain is due to hold local and key regional elections in May 2027.

 

Sánchez’s personal unpopularity has been cited as a key factor in Socialist Party losses in previous local and regional races. Holding national elections earlier in the year could remove the prime minister from the equation when the May vote is held, helping center-left candidates running in key cities and enabling the socialists retain control of regional governments in Castilla-La Mancha, Asturias and Navarre.

 

“There’s no sense in stretching this term to its limits if you’re not only going to lose, but drag others down with you,” Simón said.

 

(More) legal woes ahead

Sánchez’s tumultuous relationship with Spain’s judiciary is also likely to grow even more strained over the next year.

 

In the coming months the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, could stand trial on charges of influence-peddling and embezzlement. She denies all wrongdoing, and the prime minister has consistently argued that his wife is the victim of so-called “lawfare” targeting his friends and family.

 

Spain’s prime minister sits with his wife Begona Gómez as they attend the 41st congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) at the Palacio de

Gómez’s trial follows on this summer’s conviction of the prime minister’s brother on administrative misconduct charges, in connection to the rigged allocation of a public job — a ruling Sánchez called “unjust.”

 

Beyond the cases involving his immediate family, the prime minister faces potentially damaging judicial probes into alleged bid-rigging and kickbacks involving key allies — as well as an explosive investigation into suspected illegal financing of his Socialist Party.

 

Crucial parliamentary allies such as Gabriel Rufián of the Republican Left of Catalonia have warned that illegal financing is a “red line.” Hard evidence could force Spain’s current prime minister to suffer the same fate as his conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, whom Sánchez ousted from power after his People’s Party was proven to have engaged in the same crime.

 

Left-wing logjam

Spain’s fragmented politics make majority governments increasingly unlikely: Power goes to whoever can secure enough parliamentary support to be declared prime minister.

 

For now, the polling suggests the center-right People’s Party and the far-right Vox party are on course to control a majority of seats in the parliament in 2027. The two parties currently govern in coalition in four Spanish regions, and PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo in June explicitly endorsed a partnership at the national level.

 

Sánchez faces tougher odds in building an alliance strong enough to keep him in power. In 2023, he formed a coalition with the Sumar group — an amalgam of far-left parties — and won the backing of key regionalist and separatist parties.

 

But this time around, the numbers don’t add up. Sumar has effectively collapsed amid internal infighting, and its unifying leader, Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, has ruled out standing as its candidate at the next election. Polls indicate the far left will suffer heavy losses at the national level, leaving Sánchez with fewer viable paths to a parliamentary majority.

 

No relief abroad

There are also signs that Sánchez will no longer be able to boost his fortunes at home through his performances on the global stage.

 

Engagement in international affairs — ranging from his condemnation of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, to his ongoing feud with U.S. President Donald Trump — has previously bolstered his standing in Spain.

 

But political scientist Simón said that the harsh criticism the prime minister from fellow EU leaders for his handling of the Ceuta crisis reveals he is increasingly considered to be a figure on his way out.

 

“As one of the few social democrats still governing in Europe, his positions are out of step with the conservative consensus, and they aren’t taken seriously because he is now seen as a lame duck who is going to lose the next elections,” said Simón.

 

“That leaves him with little capacity to make a difference because he isn’t seen as representing Spain’s position at this point,” he added. “Everyone accepts someone else will be in charge next year, and likely have a very different perspective.”

 

Sánchez’s broader international vulnerabilities will be on display in November, when Madrid hosts a summit of Ibero-American heads of government that will underscore the region’s rightward shift. Roughly half the leaders attending are from the right, and include figures like Argentina’s populist president, Javier Milei, with whom the prime minister has a prickly relationship.

 

“The summit highlights a global political realignment,” said Simón. “One that Spain narrowly avoided in 2023, but seems increasingly inevitable next year".

#BREAKINGNEWS Maximum tension: Sánchez face-to-face with the King at Zarzuela after calling him o...

Paloma Barrientos points to Sánchez: “The King cannot make any move”

Ceuta migration crisis | Sánchez: "The King will travel when conditions are right" | RTVE News

 

King Felipe VI expressed deep indignation and concern over the migration crisis in Ceuta, prompting a sharp political debate between the Monarchy and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government.

 

King Felipe VI expressed deep indignation and concern over the migration crisis in Ceuta, prompting a sharp political debate between the Monarchy and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government.

The Ceuta Crisis and the King's Response

• The Trigger: Tensions flared after thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta.
• The Royal Stance: Breaking a perceived initial silence, King Felipe VI conveyed his "great concern and indignation" through direct calls to key political figures, including PM Pedro Sánchez, opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and local regional presidents.
• The Message: The monarch emphasized that the state must firmly ensure the security and protection of Spanish autonomous cities like Ceuta and Melilla.

Political Aftermath and Friction

• Clash with Sánchez: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez offered a muted response and took rare public swipes regarding the situation, while some ministers questioned the timing of potential royal interventions or a possible royal visit.
• Debate Over a Royal Visit: Local leaders, such as Ceuta's president and opposition figures like Feijóo, maintain that the King wishes to visit the autonomous city. However, the central government has delayed or conditioned any official trip, balancing domestic sovereignty concerns with diplomatic relations with Morocco.

 

The King’s fury over Ceuta crisis as Felipe VI delivers one of the strongest statements of his reign

 

The King’s fury over Ceuta crisis as Felipe VI delivers one of the strongest statements of his reign

By Molly Grace • Updated: 01 Aug 2026 • 22:54 • 3 minutes read

https://euroweeklynews.com/2026/08/01/the-kings-fury-over-ceuta-crisis-as-felipe-vi-delivers-one-of-the-strongest-statements-of-his-reign/

 

Spain’s monarch breaks with tradition after deadly migration emergency, demanding the State guarantees the security of Ceuta and Melilla Spain’s King almost never speaks like this but as politicians traded accusations over the worst migration crisis to hit Ceuta in years, Felipe VI abandoned the measured language expected of a constitutional monarch and delivered a message that has reverberated across the country.

 

The King said he had watched the events in the North African enclave with “great concern and indignation”, before issuing a serious warning: “The State must ensure the security of Ceuta and Melilla and prevent these events from happening again.” For a monarch whose constitutional role depends on political neutrality, the choice of words was extraordinary. It was not simply a message of sympathy. It was a clear declaration that what unfolded on Spain’s southern frontier was unacceptable.

 

A crisis that reached the Royal Palace

The statement, issued by the Royal Household from the Marivent Palace in Mallorca, came after a day of unprecedented scenes in Ceuta that stunned Spain and much of Europe. Thousands of migrants crossed into the autonomous city in a matter of hours, overwhelming security forces, emergency services and local authorities. The humanitarian cost quickly became apparent, with dozens of lives lost during the chaos and countless others requiring medical attention.