Spanish PM Sanchez Called as Witness in Wife’s Criminal Case

Rodrigo Orihuela
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been summoned to testify as a witness in a criminal investigation into his wife’s business dealings, adding pressure on an already fragile government.

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Sanchez will have to testify on July 30 at 11 a.m., according to a statement emailed by the court in Madrid on Monday. Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is heading the inquiry, will go to the Moncloa government palace to hear Sanchez’s testimony.

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Sanchez’s wife, Begona Gomez, is being investigated by Peinado under suspicion of influence peddling and private-sector corruption. No charges have been filed and the government has denied any wrongdoing by Gomez.

Sanchez has struggled to assert his power since the start of his current term in late 2023, and Peinado’s decision in April to open the inquiry has deepened the perception of a weak premier. Having to rely on a patchwork of as many as eight parties to govern, Sanchez has been almost unable to pass legislation this year and couldn’t get his 2024 budget approved.

When the probe was opened, Sanchez threatened to quit and said the case is part of a far-right political and media conspiracy against him and, more broadly, an attack against democracy. He’s stuck to the line since then.

Whether the case has grounds or not, it’s impacting the image of the prime minister, according to Joaquin Urias, a former judge and professor of constitutional law at the University of Seville.

“This case raises the problem of separation of powers,” said Urias. “We have an investigating judge, who, without sufficient evidence, is questioning the president’s honorability.”

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Sanchez has the legal right to decline to testify and given that he’s prime minister, he can also choose to testify by writing, said Bernardo del Rosal, a criminal law professor at the University of Alicante. In the unlikely situation that he were to be charged, Sanchez has immunity and under Spanish law the case would have to be considered by a higher court, Del Rosal said.

Peinado opened the investigation following a complaint filed by a pressure group with far-right links called Manos Limpias — Spanish for “Clean Hands.”

The criminal inquiry against Gomez focuses on two main issues:

  • Meetings that Gomez had with the owners of an airline that was rescued by the government during the pandemic and which was also a sponsor of an African development center she ran at a private university.

  • Letters that Gomez signed endorsing an entrepreneur who was seeking government subsidies at the same time as he funded a masters program she ran at another university.

Given the “relationship between the person under investigation and an authority, it is convenient, useful and pertinent to receive the testimony of” the prime minister, Judge Peinado said in his decision on Monday.

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Press officers for the prime minister’s office and for the Socialist party didn’t respond to calls from Bloomberg News on Monday.

Gomez was summoned to testify as a witness in court on July 19, but made use of her legal right to decline to speak.

--With assistance from Macarena Muñoz, Thomas Gualtieri, Jorge Zuloaga and Clara Hernanz Lizarraga.

(Updates with details on premier’s current term in fourth paragraph, comments from law professors in sixth, eighth.)

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