{"id":893339,"date":"2026-04-14T11:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/893339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:51:15","slug":"spanish-prime-ministers-wife-charged-with-corruption-pedro-sanchez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/893339\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish prime minister\u2019s wife charged with corruption | Pedro S\u00e1nchez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bego\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, the wife of Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in Madrid.<\/p>\n

G\u00f3mez, 55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid\u2019s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests.<\/p>\n

The judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, has also charged G\u00f3mez\u2019s personal assistant, Cristina \u00c1lvarez, and a businessman, Juan Carlos Barrab\u00e9s, in connection with the case.<\/p>\n

All the accused have denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The investigation into G\u00f3mez was triggered by a complaint from Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a history of using the courts to pursue those it deems a threat to Spain\u2019s democratic interests.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez had repeatedly dismissed the case against his wife as a baseless and politically motivated smear<\/a>. The prime minister has accused his political and media opponents of pursuing his family and has also openly questioned the impartiality of some members of the judiciary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his 39-page ruling, Peinado suggested that \u201ccertain public decisions favourable to the [university chair], which could have been obtained through a unique exploitation of her relational position, had been taken since G\u00f3mez\u2019s husband became secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 party and, above all, since he became prime minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge also said there was evidence of behaviour at the Moncloa palace \u2013 the prime minister\u2019s office and official residence \u2013 that \u201cseems more in keeping with that of absolutist regimes and which has, fortunately, been forgotten in our state over the years\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, who said last year \u201cthere\u2019s no doubt that there are judges doing politics and there are politicians trying to do justice\u201d, said he was confident justice would be served and his wife would be cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I ask of the justice system is that it delivers justice,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said during a visit to China on Tuesday. \u201cThat justice be served. And since I\u2019m convinced that time will put everything and everyone in their place, I have nothing more to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peinado, who faces mandatory retirement as a judge in September, has given parties in the case five days to respond to his decision. The courts will then decide whether G\u00f3mez will face a jury trial.<\/p>\n

The decision to formally charge G\u00f3mez comes at a fraught time for S\u00e1nchez as the prime minister\u2019s younger brother, David, is due to be tried next month on charges of influence-peddling. According to another complaint from Manos Limpias<\/a>, David S\u00e1nchez was handed a bespoke job by the socialist-led council of the south-western city of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the socialist party. He denies the charges.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two senior former figures in S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government are on trial for alleged corruption<\/a>. The prime minister\u2019s former right-hand man, the ex-transport minister Jos\u00e9 Luis \u00c1balos, is accused \u2013 along with his former aide Koldo Garc\u00eda and the businessman V\u00edctor de Aldama \u2013 of taking kickbacks on public contracts for sanitary equipment during the Covid pandemic. \u00c1balos and Garc\u00eda, who deny all charges, are facing sentences of 24 years and 19 years respectively while Aldama, who has already admitted to his part in the alleged scheme, faces a seven-year sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bego\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, the wife of Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-893339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116402918888118982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}