An investigation by influence peddling about the wife of the president of Spain Pedro Sánchez, Begoña Gómez, led the president to analyze resigning from his position, as announced by the leader himself this Wednesday.
“I need to stop and reflect” about “whether I should continue as head of the government or renounce this high honor,” the president said in a letter to citizens published on the social network X.
The surprise announcement by Sánchez, 52, comes after a Madrid court announced a preliminary investigation into his wife, Begoña Gómez, for suspicions of influence peddling and corruption.
A Spanish judge agreed this Wednesday to investigate accusations of corruption made by Clean hands, a private group with a history of filing lawsuits primarily for right-wing causes. The Madrid-based court will consider the allegations and either proceed with the investigation or dismiss it.
Manos Limpas accuses Gómez of having used his position to influence business agreements. The court did not provide further information on the matter and noted that the investigation was under seal.
Sánchez stated in the letter that his wife “will defend her honorability and will collaborate with Justice in everything required to clarify facts that are as scandalous in appearance as they are non-existent.”
I am aware that Begoña is being reported not because she has done something illegal (…), but because she is my wife
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The Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, said that the new accusations were “false.” When asked in Parliament after the court's decision if he thought the judicial system worked, Sánchez responded: “On a day like today and after the news that I have learned, despite everything, I continue to believe in the justice of my country”.
Who is Begoña Gómez?
In a review of Gómez's work experience and the complaints of the Popular Party in this regard, The country He recalled that before moving to La Moncloa with Pedro Sánchez, Gómez participated in a party aimed at raising funds for a solidarity project in Tanzania and a concert at the National Auditorium to support an NGO that sought to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. .
(Keep reading: Scandal in Spain: the president's wife is being investigated for alleged corruption, will Pedro Sánchez resign?).
Shortly after her husband became president, Gómez was appointed director of the “Africa Center” at the IE University of Madrid, a position she held until 2022.
The complaint against Gómez points in part to this period: an investigation of The confidential links Gómez's work in 'Africa Center' with the Spanish tourism company 'Wakalua', of the Globalia group, which in turn owns Air Europa.
In 2023, Gómez returned to the Complutense University of Madrid (where since 2014 he had co-directed the Master's Degree in Fundraising) to co-direct a master's degree in Competitive Social Transformation. Due to this link, a suspicion also weighs on him: because, due to his position at the Complutense, he signed letters of support to a technology entrepreneur so that he could obtain subsidies from the State to carry out courses for young people and the unemployed.
Gómez and Sánchez met at a party and married in 2006. They have two daughters: Ainhoa, born in 2005, and Carlota, in 2007.
“I fell madly in love with my wife when I was 31 (…) It was at a friend of mine's house at a birthday party. I had to try really hard a few times. He made it difficult for me,” Pedro Sánchez said during an interview. He explained that, after a few months of dating, he moved to the apartment where she lived in the Madrid neighborhood of La Latina. “I was the one who put the toothbrush in her house, she had a bigger apartment than mine,” he said.
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