The wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Begoña Gomez, was questioned for the fourth time in the corruption case. Both spouses deny the charges completely and claim that they are the victims of a political attack by the opposition.
On September 10, the head of the Madrid investigative court, Juan Carlos Peinado, questioned Begoña Gomez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister and leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) Pedro Sanchez. The reason for this interrogation was the scandal, at the center of which, according to the investigation, are both the prime minister's wife herself and a number of entrepreneurs and civil servants associated with her.
This is the fourth summons of Begoña Gomez for questioning in the case, which was opened in April 2024. She has been brought as a suspect under the following articles of the Spanish Penal Code: “trading in influence“ by using her status as the prime minister's wife, “corruption in business“, “illegitimate appropriation of property“, “illegitimate interference in the affairs of the administration“ and “misuse of state funds“. The lawsuit against Gomez was filed by the organization “Clean Hands“, which fights corruption. Sanchez and his wife completely deny the charges and consider themselves victims of a campaign launched by the opposition forces in the country.
Alleged violation of the law
The published materials in the case include the Madrid consulting firm Innova Next SL and the Valley business school, which in recent years have been awarded state contracts worth a total of 15.6 million euros. Both organizations belong to businessman Juan Carlos Barabes. It is alleged that the entrepreneur received a number of contracts for a large amount at the insistence of Gomez.
The investigation believes that in this way the prime minister's wife thanked Barabes for developing and financing her personal project - the opening of the Department of "Competitive Social Transformation" at the Complutense University of Madrid. According to experts, such a department with an incomprehensible name for many was not necessary and pressure was exerted on the university administration to open it. After the investigation began, the department was closed due to "lack of scientific and practical meaning".
Madrid lawyer Miguel Ramos told DW that, among other things, Gomez "has no right to head the department, since she has neither a scientific degree nor even a higher education". She also had no right to head a master's program in the department - something she did for several years.
What else is Begoña Gomez suspected of?
But this is not the end of the list of alleged violations of the law by the prime minister, the lawyer also claims. The investigation alleges that she embezzled software worth 300,000 euros, which was paid for from the university budget.
Another violation is the illegal use of civil servant Cristina Álvarez as Gomez's assistant on the prime minister's personal business projects, for which Álvarez received a salary from the state. Gomez's last interrogation, which lasted only 15 minutes, was devoted to this topic. Sánchez's wife rejected the accusation of violating the law and stated that she used the services of the civil servant, who is her friend, extremely rarely.
A total of four people have been brought as defendants in the case: Juan Carlos Barabés, the university's rector Joaquín Goyache, Cristina Álvarez and Francisco Martín Aguirre - head of the department in which she worked. Lawyer Ramos added that the investigation tried to call the prime minister himself as a witness, but he exercised his legal right not to testify against his relatives.
European Public Prosecutor's Office is interested
The case of Begoña Gomez is also of interest to the European Public Prosecutor's Office - the legal body of the European Union (EU), since part of the money paid to businessman Barabés on the recommendation of the prime minister's wife was received by Spain from European funds. The prosecutor's office will check whether there was "misuse" of these funds in this case.
And the investigation in Madrid is also interested in how in 2020 the government allocated 450 million euros to the crisis-ridden Spanish airline Air Europa. This airline had committed to allocating a large sum for Gomez's business project, called Africa Center, which was supposed to promote the development of entrepreneurship in Africa. The investigation is interested in the personal and business ties of the prime minister's wife with Javier Hidalgo, the son of the company's owner.
Discontented management
The case against the Spanish prime minister's wife has received a great public response, Carlos Guerrera from the Madrid Sociological Center told DW. It has intensified the protest sentiments that have accompanied the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in recent years. People are outraged above all by the constant corruption scandals, and the story with Begoña Gomez is no exception, the observer says: "High-ranking civil servants have been implicated in corruption, including ministers and officials of the ruling party." Even Sanchez's younger brother is on trial. It is alleged that as an employee of the Badajoz provincial administration, his activities were limited only to receiving a salary and he could not even tell the investigator where his office was located.
The discontent, according to the sociologist, was caused by “Sánchez's attacks on the press and judicial authorities that criticized him, as well as by the sluggish fight against natural disasters“ that have hit Spain. The country has been among the record-breaking countries in terms of the number of victims in the Covid pandemic and has suffered greatly from earthquakes, floods and forest fires. And all this “against the backdrop of a prolonged economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, bankruptcy of small and medium-sized enterprises, huge foreign debt, etc.“, recalls Guerrera.
In a recent interview on state television, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected criticism directed at him – both in connection with his activities as head of the government and the corruption scandals. He once again refused to resign, as demanded by the parliamentary opposition, and he explained the situation surrounding his wife and brother with the intrigues of “politicized“ investigators and judges who worked for the opposition.