image source, Reuters
Photo caption, Pedro Sánchez published an extensive statement in X saying that his wife, Begoña Gómez, will defend his honor.Article information
- Author, Editorial
- Scroll, BBC News World
- April 24, 2024
Updated April 25, 2024
The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Wednesday the suspension of his public activities to consider his possible resignation from office after a Madrid court accepted a complaint against his wife, Begoña Gómez, for a possible traffic crime. of influences.
In a open letter to citizensSánchez stated: “I need to stop and reflect. I urgently need to answer the question of whether it is worth it, if I should continue leading the government or give up this honor.”
The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) attributes the complaint against his wife to “an operation of harassment and demolition” of the “right and extreme right” with the aim of making him “fail politically and personally by attacking” his wife.
And he points to his opposition rivals on the right of the political arc – the leader of the conservative Popular Party, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo; and the far-right Vox, Santiago Abascal – as “necessary collaborators” of a campaign that seeks to “dehumanize and delegitimize the political adversary through complaints that are as scandalous as they are false.”
Sánchez assured in the letter that he published on his social network account post.
Photo caption, Begoña Gómez, wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
“I am not surprised by the overacting of Mr. Feijóo and Mr. Abascal. In this outrage that is as serious as it is crude, both are necessary collaborators with a far-right digital galaxy and the organization Hands Cleans,” he says in the letter.
“In fact, it was Mr. Feijóo who reported the case to the Conflict of Interest Office asking for me to be disqualified from holding public office for 5 to 10 years,” adds Sánchez.
The content of the complaint
The complaint admitted by the Court of Instruction Number 41 of Madrid against Begoña Gómez states that, “taking advantage of her relationship with the president of the government, she would have recommended or endorsed by letter of recommendation with her signature to businessmen who bid for public tenders.”
The letter also points out that one of the companies that obtained public funds organized years later a master’s degree in a university program that she directs and that another of them, the airline Air Europa, agreed to allocate funds for an innovation center in Africa that was also charge of Sánchez’s wife.
The president of the Spanish government assured that his wife will defend herself in court against “facts that are as apparently scandalous as they are inconsistent.”
The complaint was filed by the Collective of Public Officials Clean Hands, an organization often involved in controversy because its founder is a former far-right militant and which has gained notoriety by filing judicial complaints about alleged cases of political corruption that have frequently finished archived.
Clean Hands alleges that Gómez used her influence as the wife of the president of the government to obtain sponsors for a university master’s degree that she directed.
The investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado ordered the opening of proceedings and summoned as witnesses the directors of the media that have disseminated the journalistic publications on which the complaint is based, some with an editorial line very critical of Pedro’s government. Sanchez.
The court did not provide more details, since the case is under summary secrecy and is preliminary; However, the Prosecutor’s Office presented an appeal this Thursday against the opening of the investigation and has requested that the case be archived.
Also this Thursday, Clean Hands himself admitted the possibility that his complaint against Begoña Gómez is based on fake news.
“I am not naive. I am aware that they denounce Begoña not because she has done something illegal, they know there is no case, but because she is my wife,” says the socialist leader in the letter.
Clean Hands uses a unique Spanish legal instrument known as “popular accusation” to file criminal complaints against third parties.
A surprising announcement
image source, Yves Herman / Reuters
Photo caption, Begoña Gómez has been accused of influence peddling.
The president’s letter generated a great stir in the world of politics, and national and international media echoed its content, which includes personal reflections.
“At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is, is all this worth it? I honestly don’t know. This attack is unprecedented, so serious and so gross that I need to stop and reflect with my wife. Many times We forget that behind politicians there are people,” Sánchez says in his letter.
Hours before the text was made public, the PP had demanded explanations in Parliament, to which the president of the government responded by saying that “on a day like today and after the news that I have learned, despite everything I still believe in the justice of my country”.
Spanish media reported that Sánchez left Parliament on Wednesday heading to his Madrid residence visibly upset.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Popular Party (PP), the main opposition force, accused Sánchez of “abandoning his duties” for announcing that he is taking a few days until Monday to decide whether to continue in office.
“If you have nothing to fear, why don’t you explain?” Feijóo asked him, who also reproached him for what he considered an attempt to “victimize” himself.
In a press conference, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, harshly criticized Sánchez’s handling of the situation.
On the other side, government ministers back the president, and Yolanda Díaz, labor minister and leader of the government’s leftist coalition partner, Sumar, told Reuters that Sánchez has their full support.
“The ultra-right offensive cannot get its way,” he wrote in
The role of the independentistas
Sánchez’s decision to suspend his public events comes at a tense moment for the PSOE, before the elections to the European Parliament in June and the elections in the region of Catalonia next month.
Sánchez was precisely due to participate this Thursday in the start of the socialists’ campaign in Barcelona ahead of the Catalan elections on May 12.
The Spanish president managed to be sworn back into office a few months ago with the support of two Catalan separatist parties, which agreed to give him their votes in exchange for an amnesty for those accused and convicted of the independence process in Catalonia that culminated in a referendum. of unauthorized independence in October 2017.
Without the support of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), he would not have been able to remain in power.
Opposition parties are outraged by the amnesty, which also means that former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont can run in the May 12 elections, seven years after he escaped from justice by moving to Belgium.
Puigdemont still faces a terrorism case, but believes the amnesty will allow him to return to Spain.
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