Pedro Sánchez is considering resigning following the opening of an investigation against his wife

“I have to stop and think” to decide “whether to continue as head of government or renounce this honor,” he wrote, indicating that he would announce his decision to the press on Monday and suspend its activities until then.

This preliminary investigation against Begonja Gomez was opened on April 16 following a complaint by the association “Manos limpias” (Clean Hands), a collective considered close to the extreme right, the Supreme Court of Justice announced in a short press release. It was placed under the seal of “investigative secrecy”, the court added.

In his letter, Pedro Sánchez, who has been in power since 2018, denounces the complaint based on “non-existent” facts and a campaign of “harassment” by the “ultra-conservative” media, which he says is supported by the right-wing opposition and the extreme right against his wife . “I’m not naive,” he said, “I’m aware of the fact that they’re filing a complaint against Begonja, not because she did something illegal, because they know very well that’s not true, but because she’s my wife.”

According to the Internet media El Confidencial, which revealed the information, this investigation focuses in particular on Begoña Gómez’s connections with the Spanish tourism group Globalia, the owner of Air Europa, at a time when the latter was in negotiations with the government. to get help in the face of a major drop in air traffic caused by the Covid pandemic.

At the time, Begoña Gomez headed the IE Africa Center, a foundation linked to Madrid’s IE University business school, a position she left in 2022. According to El Confidencial, the IE Africa Center “signed a sponsorship agreement with Globalia 2020.” and Begoña Gomez reportedly participated in a “private meeting with its CEO Javier Hidalgo at a time when Globalia was negotiating its multimillion-dollar rescue plan with the government” of Pedro Sanchez.

This plan enabled Air Europa to receive 475 million euros in November 2020 from a fund of 10 billion intended to support strategic companies in difficulty due to the health crisis. The Spanish company was the first company to benefit from this fund.

Dozens of others followed, including several of its competitors (Iberia, Vueling, Volotea, etc.). On Wednesday, the right-wing opposition called on the prime minister to “give explanations to the Spanish”, through Ester Muñoz, a member of the leadership of the People’s Party (PP, right). “Everything will be known in the end,” warned party spokesman Borja Semper.

Several of those close to the prime minister spoke out on Wednesday, accusing the right of manipulating the justice system for political purposes. There is a “strategy that consists in launching accusations without any basis, without any true information, without any evidence, just to hurt, just to slander” and “slander”, condemned the president of the socialist group in the Chamber of Deputies, Patxi Lopez.

The PP is “using a false accusation by an extreme right-wing organization to slander and launch a slander” against the prime minister, insists the number two in the government, Maria Jesus Montero. “We will not allow these Trumpist practices to undermine Spanish democracy,” she added.

Manos limpias, a collective founded in 1995, has been the initiator of several legal proceedings in recent years and has become a civil party in numerous corruption trials.

The collective is considered close to the extreme right, primarily because of the personality of its founder Miguel Bernado, former leader of the Frente Nacional party, dissolved in 1993. Accused of involvement in an extortion ring, the latter was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2021, but was finally released on appeal last month, due to a lack of evidence according to the court.