After opening an investigation against his wife, Pedro Sanchez plans to resign

Pedro Sanchez pushes Spain into uncertainty. Spain’s prime minister has announced he may resign after a Spanish court opened an investigation into his wife Begona Gomez, pushing the country into uncharted political territory and raising the possibility of another general election.

Pedro Sanchez suspended his activities over the weekend and said in an open letter that he would consider his possible resignation and announce his decision next Monday, paralyzing Spain’s political system for five days.

The decision was made just a few hours after his wife was charged with “corruption” and “influence trading”.

The announcement of the judicial investigation was made in Congress and mentioned by Pedro Sánchez, in response to a question about his trust in the Spanish justice system.

Sanchez called the accusations an attack by right-wing and far-right forces and said he no longer knew if being prime minister was “worth it.”

The political leader says the complaints against his wife are “baseless”, stressing that they were only made in an attempt to “delegitimise” his role as prime minister.

“In short, it is an operation of harassment and destruction by land, sea and air, in an attempt to weaken me politically and personally by attacking my wife”he wrote.

“I’m not naive. I know they are calling Begona names not because she did something illegal, they know there is no case, but because she is my wife”he continued, before adding:

“Because I am also fully aware that the attacks I suffer are not against me, but against what I represent: a progressive political option, supported by millions of Spaniards election after election, based on economic progress, justice, social and democratic regeneration”.

The lawsuit against Begona Gomez was filed in Madrid by the union Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), which represents employees in public services.

In her lawsuit against Gomez, Manos Limpias claims she had a friendship with a businessman, Carlos Barrabes, who won government contracts.

His consultancy, temporarily merged with another firm, won contracts in 2020 and 2021 from the public entity Red.es, which seeks to promote employment in the digital sector.

Carlos Barrabes received the explicit support of Begone Gomez, who wrote a letter confirming her support for the company. The letter sent by Gomez reads: “Master’s management is aware of the Barrabes and La Vallée initiative, promoted by Red.es and ESF (European Social Fund), through this letter we express our support for this program which aims to find, train and integrate young unemployed people into the digital market.

The consulting firm Barrabes was subsequently awarded the contract and achieved the highest marks during the evaluation process. Begone Gomez’s activities have also been called into question by her connection to the Spanish tourism group Globalia, which sponsored her career and received more than 600 million euros of public money to save her then-broken airline Air Europa.

Manos Limpias asked the investigative court in Madrid to call Gomez to testify, take the statements of several witnesses and collect documentation related to public procurement.

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. It is considered close to the extreme right, especially because of the personality of its founder Miguel Bernado, the former leader of the Frente Nacional party, dissolved in 1993.

Accused of being involved in an extortion ring, the latter was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2021, but was finally acquitted on appeal last month, due to a lack of evidence according to the court.