Bribes, sexual harassment… the PS of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez still in the middle of a storm

So it will never end? This is the question that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has been in turmoil for months, must ask himself, once again. His former right-hand man and confidant José Luis Ábalos, in pre-trial detention for two weeks, learned on Thursday that he was going to be tried. The Supreme Court of Madrid, Spain’s highest judicial institution, has confirmed prosecutions in the “Koldo affair”, a corruption scandal in the awarding of contracts for the sale of surgical masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. The former Minister of Transport, who left the government in 2021, is still an MP.

The prosecution will demand 24 years in prison against him. He will be tried alongside his ex-assistant, Koldo Garcia, and an entrepreneur, Victor de Aldama, at the heart of the case for influence peddling, membership in a criminal organization, embezzlement of public funds and corruption.

The investigation, opened since the spring, also hit the former number 3 of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Santos Cerdán, who took over the government from José Luis Ábalos. Cerdán has been in pre-trial detention for five months.

“It’s a Spain that no longer exists”

José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García and Santos Cerdán all played a key role in Pedro Sánchez’s return to leadership of the PSOE in 2017, giving him victory in the legislative elections that allowed him to become Prime Minister. After a first laborious stint at the head of the party between 2014 and 2016, Sánchez and his three friends toured the regions of Spain by car, in contact with activists, to win their support. This political team-up has now earned them the nickname of the “Peugeot clan” by the opposition.

If he has never denied his friendship for the three men, Sánchez continues to multiply his declarations of probity, promising that the Socialist Party had never benefited from illegal financing. And swears that he knew nothing about these crooked contracts.

Nevertheless: this Friday, the communist Yolanda Díaz, second vice-president of the government and minister of Labor, called an emergency meeting to demand an in-depth ministerial reshuffle. It is necessary, she said, “to overhaul the government from top to bottom (…) and to take action”. “These stories of womanizers, crooks and corruption… It’s a Spain that no longer exists; people are honest. These ideas date from the 20th century. It’s time to turn the page,” she pleaded.

Because the Koldo affair is coupled with allegations of sexual harassment against several leaders of the PSOE. For a week, the head of the socialist federations in the province of Torremolinos has been accused of having sent, over several years, hundreds of messages “of a sexual nature, insinuations and unsolicited advances” to a young woman, according to the daily El País. He also allegedly made inappropriate gestures towards her. Another is accused of covering up the actions of a former Sanchez adviser, Francisco Salazar. He is accused by several former collaborators of having considered that a polite refusal on their part had no value and that he could continue to solicit them. Salazar had to resign from his mandate as deputy in July.

Legal and psychological support for victims

On Thursday, the left-wing online news site elDiario revealed the existence of a “fourth case of sexual harassment allegations, this time against Javier Izquierdo,” a member of the PSOE federal leadership. And according to the site, a new party employee has added to the Salazar case, accusing him of having made obscene comments about her clothes and her body, of having invited her to dine alone with him and of having asked her to sleep at his house while she occupied a subordinate position at the Moncloa Palace, the official residence and workplace of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain.

In response, the head of government called on all women victims of sexual abuse to report. The party is committed to providing legal support and psychological support to women who wish to take legal action.

Trying to regain control, Sanchez also announced several measures against corruption, including reforms to the party apparatus “to avoid excessive concentration of power” and guaranteeing anonymity for whistleblowers. He ruled out resigning: “The captain does not abandon the ship when the sea is raging, he stays to face the storm,” he guaranteed. As for reshuffle, he has not yet responded to Yolanda Díaz.