The wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain will stand trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling as first lady, a judge ruled on Saturday.
Begoña Gómez has been under investigation since 2024, after a self-described anti-graft group filed a complaint accusing her of supporting a bid for a public contract by a group of companies to which she has personal and professional ties. Ms. Gómez has denied the accusations, but a judge in Madrid ruled there was enough evidence for the first lady to stand trial.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado brought charges of embezzlement, corruption, misappropriation of funds and influence peddling against Ms. Gómez and ordered her to surrender her passport to officials and to report to a court every 15 days. A trial date has not been set.
“Behaviors such as these emanating from presidential palaces seem more characteristic of absolutist regimes, thankfully long forgotten in our country,” the judge said in an 84-page ruling.
The Spanish justice system allows a plaintiff to file a complaint directly with the court, after which a judge leads an investigation, reviews the evidence and decides whether to proceed to trial. Other right-wing groups, including the far-right Vox party, joined the complaint against Ms. Gómez.
Mr. Sánchez has previously described his wife’s legal woes as an “operation of harassment and demolition” by his political foes. He publicly considered resigning when the investigation first began, but held on in defiance of what he called a political smear campaign. Mr. Sánchez, a leftist leader who is popular with liberals on the world stage, has faced growing pressure at home, where corruption allegations have dogged him and those in his circle.
Last month, the police searched the headquarters of the Socialist Party, which Mr. Sánchez leads. The raid followed a demonstration by conservative Spaniards demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
Corruption investigations have ensnared several of the prime minister’s allies and relatives. Last month, Mr. Sánchez’s brother went on trial over allegations that he received a patronage job. A little more than a week earlier, his political ally and Spain’s former prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was placed under formal investigation after accusations that he had received kickbacks of as much as $2.4 million for helping persuade the government to bail out an ailing airline.
Ms. Gómez was charged alongside Juan Carlos Barrabés Cónsul, a businessman the court said benefited from the first lady’s actions. Her assistant, Cristina Álvarez, is also under investigation for her role as Ms. Gómez’s intermediary.
“Today is a disastrous day for those of us who believe in justice,” Félix Bolaños, a cabinet minister and senior member of the Socialist Party, said on social media. “Who will repair the damage caused?”
After Judge Peinado’s decision to allow the trial to go forward, Mr. Sánchez’s political opponents quickly circled. Miguel Tellado, general secretary of the opposition Popular Party, called for an early election. Taking aim at his rivals, he said that it appeared that in the ruling party, “if you don’t have a member of your family indicted, it seems like you’re nobody.”
One of the groups that brought the case, known in English as Make Yourself Heard, celebrated the judge’s decision on social media as “a great example of a justice that does not yield.”
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