After a judge accused his party of corruption, the Spanish prime minister faces growing calls to resign.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faced growing pressure Thursday to call early elections, a day after Civil Guard agents spent about 12 hours at the headquarters of his Spanish Socialist Workers Party investigating whether its members had surreptitiously financed a smear campaign against judges involved in cases against the government and members of Sánchez’s family.
National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz, who ordered the police operation, accused the party of keeping a de facto criminal organization on the payroll, according to court documents reviewed by The New York Times. The Socialist Party said it would cooperate with authorities and judicial officials, as did Sánchez, who added that the central figures in the investigation had been expelled from the party more than a year ago.
“What I can convey to Spanish citizens,” he said, “is total cooperation with justice.”
The accusations aggravated the internal crisis facing Sánchez, who has sought to distance himself from the growing halo of corruption spreading among his party and its allies by taking on a more prominent role on the international stage. His criticism of the Iran war and Donald Trump’s government, and his efforts to make common cause with Pope Leo XIV ahead of a papal visit to Spain next month, have made him a favorite of liberals around the world.
At home it’s another story. Last week, his political ally and former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was subjected to a formal investigation of influence peddling. Several of Sánchez’s relatives and other former allies are being prosecuted or investigated for corruption, including his brother, who began standing trial Thursday in connection with allegations that he had received a patronage position.
One of those defendants, Santos Cerdán, a former high-ranking Socialist Party official, is accused in the latest charges that prompted Wednesday’s police raid of orchestrating a smear campaign against judges and prosecutors.
On Wednesday, Sánchez met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. He described the pope as a “moral compass in the fight against injustice”, almost at the same time that his own party was accused of corruption by the Spanish justice system. Sánchez has not been directly implicated and his office has repeatedly insisted on affirming his innocence.
But, at least in terms of public perception, that is increasingly difficult.
On Thursday, the country’s conservative media lined up to attack him. An editorial in El Mundo said that early elections were a “genuine democratic emergency,” and stated that the government “has no political or moral authority.”
“All the corruption is from Sánchez,” claimed a typical front-page headline of the conservative newspaper ABC. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s main conservative opposition party, mocked Sánchez for trying to wrap himself in the clean robes of the popular pope.
“If he wants to approach the pope, he should remember the seventh commandment,” Feijóo said, “‘thou shalt not steal,’ and the eighth commandment, ‘thou shalt not lie.'”
This came after a protest over the weekend by conservative Spanish citizens who marched through the streets of Madrid demanding Sánchez’s resignation.
Carlos Barragán collaborated with reporting.
Jason Horowitz is the Times’ Madrid bureau chief, covering Spain, Portugal and the way people live across Europe.
Carlos Barragán collaborated with reporting.
