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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, is now facing trial on charges of influence peddling and embezzlement, accused of using her position to secure funding for her private university projects.
Second, Sánchez’s inner circle is collapsing. Last June, his former senior aide Santos Cerdán was placed in pre-trial detention for alleged bribery.
Then in November, his former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and top aide Koldo García were placed in custody over the so-called “Koldo Case”.
The two officials allegedly accepted secret cash payments to award lucrative government face mask contracts during the pandemic.
They may have been in the business of covering people’s faces, but if these accusations are proven true, they did a terrible job of covering their own tracks.
Not to mention that public money was also allegedly used here to pay for trips and a house for Abalos’ secret mistress.
Naturally, the opposition People’s Party (PP) is demanding that the prime minister resign immediately. However, their outrage is complicated by their own historical scandals, most notably the “Kitchen Case”, now in trial, where the party allegedly used state police to destroy evidence of illegal financing.
So, how bad is the systemic rot? According to Transparency International, in recent years Spain has suffered a significant decline.
Looking at the latest EU data, Spain is placed firmly in the lower half of the 27-member bloc.
Spain is still doing better than Italy and Poland, but it is drifting uncomfortably close to the bottom of the table, where you will find Hungary and Bulgaria.
So it seems Sánchez might be standing up to Washington, but his greatest challenge will be surviving Madrid.
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