Less than a year after his re-election, Pedro Sánchez faces allegations of corruption and social unrest

This last government of Pedro Sánchez has not yet turned one year old and, however, suffers unprecedented wear and tear in the six years that he wears in the Moncloa Palace as president of Spain.

To the complaints of possible corruption within his government and his party, the PSOE, and to the investigation of his wife, Begoña Gómez, for alleged influence peddling, this weekend was joined by a protest organized by right-wing associations in which Some 25 thousand people asked for his resignation and an electoral advance as soon as possible.

And not only that: an investigation by the Civil Guard revealed that the president “lied” about a confusing stopover by the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, at the Barajas airport in January 2020.

The management of this second coalition government of Spanish democracy is also being corroded by announcements such as that Catalonia – one of the 17 Spanish regions – will have “unique” financing from the State. Or the recent modification of a law, which was nevertheless approved by all parliamentary groups, which will benefit ETA prisoners serving sentences outside of Spain.

Nor is the indictment of the State Attorney General, Alvaro García Ortiz, publicly supported by the head of the government, good news for Sánchez, and who is accused of an alleged crime of revealing secrets. It is the first time that the Supreme Court has decided to investigate the chief prosecutor. In this case, due to a leak of information in a case involving the boyfriend of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for tax fraud.

Until the railway chaos That this weekend affected some 15 thousand Spaniards and tourists due to the cancellation of 32 trains put the government in the eye of the storm and targeted the current Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente.

This is how Spaniards know the corruption case that the Spanish Justice has been investigating for months: a plot that would have collected millionaire bribes in the purchase of masks and medical supplies during the early days of the Covid pandemic and in which a former minister of Pedro Sánchez could have participated.

The evidence points to Koldo García, main advisor to the former Minister of Transportation, José Luis Abalos, as one of the possible ringleaders of the network.

During the previous Sánchez government – the one that agreed in coalition with Pablo Iglesias, from Podemos -, Abalos was, in addition to being one of the ministers who received the largest budgetsecretary of organization of the PSOE and right-hand man of Pedro Sánchez who, without giving details, fired him from his cabinet in July 2021.

However, Abalos joined the lists of PSOE deputies in the last elections in July of last year and occupied his seat in Congress. In February, when the scandal of the corrupt plot broke out, the party expelled him. But since in Spain the seats belong to the people and not to the parties, Abalos did not leave his chair.

He is no longer a PSOE deputy but a solitary parliamentarian who could soon lose the immunity granted to him by the position: the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office asked the Supreme Court to charge the former Minister of Transport. He considers that there are indications of his alleged participation in the corruption network.

A report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard considers that the former minister had a “relevant and responsible role” and that he could have committed crimes of bribery, influence peddling and criminal organization.

That same report revealed, as a side effect of investigating the cell phone of the former minister under investigation, that in January 2020 Abalos had informed President Sánchez, by chat, that Maduro’s vice president wanted to meet with him “discreetly,” to which the The president of the government responded: “Good.”

Since 2018, the European Union has sanctioned some senior Venezuelan officials –including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez– prohibiting them from setting foot in any of the 27 countries that make up the Schengen area.

Last week, in addition, the Popular Party, leader of the opposition, filed a complaint against the PSOE for alleged illegal financing.

The complaint was based on an article in an online publication that includes the anonymous statement of two people who They claimed to have left 90 thousand euros at the PSOE headquarters in exchange for favors in obtaining licenses.

But this Monday, the National Court rejected the PP’s complaint due to lack of evidence: “In general, a piece of news by itself does not legitimize any popular actor to convert the journalistic story into a story of punishable events triggering criminal proceedings. Something more is needed,” said the investigating judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz.

Since then, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado investigate the letters of recommendation that Begoña Gómez he could have signed in favor of the businessman Carlos Barrabés, with whom Gómez co-directed a master’s degree chair at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Peinado expanded his investigation until the European Prosecutor’s Office cut corners: he asked to investigate whether any of the possible alleged crimes involved European funds.

In his investigation, Judge Peinado summoned Pedro Sánchez, as the husband of the investigated woman, and took his statement at the Moncloa Palace. The head of the government, protected by his right, he refused to declare. But that recording, lasting less than a minute, went around the newspaper editorial offices and all of Spain heard it.

At the end of September, with the beginning of the academic year, the Complutense reported that Begoña Gómez’s chair closed. “Due to reputational devaluation and low demand from students,” they argued.

The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has just given Pedro Sánchez another bad news: it rejected the complaint for prevarication (unfair and arbitrary act) that the head of the government had filed against Judge Peinado.