By Fernando Heller
(EurActiv) — Santos Cerdán, secretary general of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist PSOE party, announced his resignation on Thursday following reports linking him to a high-profile corruption probe.
According to Spanish news agency Servimedia, a report by the Guardia Civil’s Central Operative Unit (UCO) connects Cerdán to the collection of over €600,000 in alleged illegal commissions related to public contracts.
In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, Cerdán said he would step down from all his party posts due to his reported involvement in the so-called “Koldo case.”
The scandal centres around alleged kickbacks related to €54 million in COVID-era mask procurement contracts. It implicates several individuals, including a former transport minister and a one-time close aide to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Later on Thursday, Sánchez apologised for having trusted one of his top allies and pledged to conduct a party audit and implement internal restructuring measures to prevent further wrongdoing.
“We should not have trusted him (Santos Cerdán). There is no such thing as zero corruption, but there must be zero tolerance,” Sánchez said in a brief statement to the press.
Spain’s centre-right opposition party, the Partido Popular, has called for Sánchez to resign and for early elections to be held.
“This is not solved with the resignation of Cerdán and they know it. Explanations, resignations and elections,” the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, wrote on X.
Meanwhile, far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal urged Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to table a no-confidence motion against Sánchez, calling the prime minister a “mafioso” who must be removed from power.