Sensitive legal cases shake Sánchez again

TT

Published 20.48

 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is under pressure from legal proceedings and corruption suspicions against his entourage. Here he stands in parliament with a face mask in May 2020 and in the background is, among others, the then minister José Luis Ábalos, who is now accused of having accepted bribes in procurement of just such masks. Photo: Ballesteros/Poolfoto Via AP/TT

The public prosecutor is on trial, as is one of the prime minister's close associates.

Two high-profile legal cases in Spain cast a long shadow over the government.

The Supreme Court has decided to bring corruption charges against Spain's former transport minister José Luis Ábalos, who has also been a close associate of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Ábalos is accused, in particular, of having received money in exchange for advantageous procurements of face masks during the Covid pandemic.

In February 2024, a scheme was revealed in which a small company had been awarded procurements worth the equivalent of more than half a billion kronor – and responsible buyers are suspected of having received commissions worth tens of millions.

Promised new measures

José Luis Ábalos sat in the lower house of the Spanish Congress and was also party secretary of the ruling left-wing party PSOE when the crimes were committed.

The ex-minister is being prosecuted together with two other people. He has also been kicked out of the party, but his replacement as party secretary, Santos Cerdan, has since been sentenced to prison for having himself accepted bribes.

The PSOE is defending itself against accusations that corruption is rooted in the party apparatus. Party leader and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took office in 2018 on a promise to clean up dirty money in the state apparatus, after the previous right-wing government was ousted amid a series of corruption scandals.

In a five-hour hearing in the Senate last week, Sánchez insisted that his party’s money was “totally clean.” Sánchez’s wife and brother have also been the subject of targeted investigations that have rocked the premier’s career, but he has remained in office and angrily denied them.

Unique trial

In a separate case, Spain’s Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz is on trial for leaking classified and politically sensitive information, a court hearing that began on Monday.

The information concerned the partner of one of the opposition’s leading figures, the president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

It is the first time in Spain that a serving prosecutor has faced trial, but García Ortiz denies all charges. The official was nominated to his post by the current government and the prime minister has repeatedly expressed his support for him.