Sanchez faces tricky June as scrutiny of his closest circle deepens – snap analyis

Sam Jones

in Madrid

The coming days and weeks are shaping up to be an anxious time for Pedro Sánchez, his family, his party and his administration.

Tomorrow, the PM’s younger brother, David Sánchez, will go on trial over allegations that he 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 PSOE but was not yet prime minister.

Meanwhile, a judge investigating accusations that Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, used her influence as the spouse of the prime minister to secure sponsors for a university master’s degree course she ran and used state funds to pay her assistant for help with personal matters, has summoned her to appear on 9 June.

David Sánchez and Gómez have denied any wrongdoing. Both have found themselves under investigation following complaints brought by the pressure group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a long history of using the courts to pursue political targets.

The prime minister – who has said his family have been the victims of a “harassment and bullying operation” waged by his political and media opponents – has insisted that neither has committed any offence. Sánchez has also openly questioned the independence of some members of the Spanish judiciary, claiming last year that, “there’s no doubt that there are judges doing politics and there are politicians trying to do justice”.

Things took another bleak turn for the socialists last week when the former PSOE prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was placed under investigation by a judge examining the state bailout of a Venezuela-linked airline during the Covid pandemic.

Zapatero, a totemic figure on the Spanish left who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2011, will appear before the judge on 18 and 19 June.

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”.

Zapatero released a video last week 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.