Spain’s former prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has been placed under formal investigation for influence peddling, the Spanish National High Court said on Tuesday, making him the first former leader in the country’s modern democratic history to face a criminal investigation.
The accusations are mainly connected to a state bailout that was awarded in 2021, a decade after Mr. Zapatero left office, to an ailing airline, Plus Ultra. The court has accused Mr. Zapatero of secretly receiving kickbacks worth up to roughly $2.4 million in exchange for, among other activities, helping persuade his successors in government to award that bailout.
Mr. Zapatero has denied any wrongdoing and the airline did not respond to a request for comment. “All my public and private actions have always been carried out in full compliance with the law,” Mr. Zapatero said on Tuesday in a video distributed to the news media.
The investigation threatened to affect the legacy of Mr. Zapatero, who became a hero to liberals for drawing down Spanish troops in Iraq and legalizing same-sex marriage.
It also heightened pressure on the sitting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Mr. Sánchez’s government is not accused of any crime but he is closely associated with Mr. Zapatero and he was prime minister when the bailout was awarded. Since leaving office, Mr. Zapatero has regularly campaigned for Mr. Sánchez, a fellow Socialist who has emerged in recent months as a prominent critic of President Trump.
Spain’s conservative opposition immediately seized on the court’s announcement on Tuesday to heighten pressure on Mr. Sánchez, whose inner circle and family were already embroiled in long-running corruption accusations.
“The racket is collapsing, and the kingpins of the plot are starting to fall,” Miguel Ángel Tellado, the parliamentary spokesman for the conservative Popular Party, said Tuesday on social media. “We are not just talking about the former prime minister, but about Sánchez’s main adviser,” Mr. Tellado wrote.
Mr. Sánchez’s office declined to comment.
La Ser, a left-leaning radio station, published a message that it said Mr. Sánchez had sent to Socialist Party officials in which the prime minister backed Mr. Zapatero. Mr. Sánchez’s allies, the message reportedly said, should “defend the good name of a colleague, Prime Minister Zapatero, who did and does so much good for the socialist cause.” Mr. Sánchez’s office declined to comment on the authenticity of the message.
According to the court, Mr. Zapatero leveraged his personal connections and access to government officials to both secure a bailout worth 53 million euros, or $63 million, and then to profit from it.
The court said that Mr. Zapatero had ordered the creation of an offshore company in the United Arab Emirates — the purpose of which, the court said, may have been to receive 1 percent of the bailout funds, or roughly $630,000.
In total, the court said, the former prime minister and his family may have received as much as 2 million euros, or roughly $2.4 million, for this work and for other influence peddling.
The investigation is part of a broader inquiry into the contentious bailout, which the Spanish authorities have been investigating for years.
In December, the Spanish police raided the airline’s offices and detained its president and chief executive, along with Julio Martínez Martínez, a Spanish businessman and a personal friend of Mr. Zapatero. The court said on Tuesday that Mr. Martínez operated a consultancy group that billed Plus Ultra and subsequently paid roughly $583,000 to Mr. Zapatero, as well as roughly $285,000 to a company owned by Mr. Zapatero’s family.
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