Spanish PM denies ‘widespread’ corruption after ex-top aide jailed

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday dismissed allegations of “widespread corruption” against his Socialists after an ex-top aide was jailed for a graft scandal that risks toppling the government.

A string of corruption investigations into relatives and former top political allies has jeopardised the position of Sanchez, viewed as a global left-wing hero for his clashes with US President Donald Trump and Israel.

The Supreme Court sentenced Jose Luis Abalos, an ex-Socialist heavyweight who helped mastermind Sanchez’s rise to power in 2018, to 24 years in jail on Monday for pocketing lucrative kickbacks for health equipment contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sanchez, a canny politician famous for escaping seemingly hopeless positions, fended off accusations from the conservative and far-right opposition that systemic corruption had gripped his party.

“Certain actors in politics and the media are trying to mix, to put on the same level and, therefore, confuse people to create a sensation of widespread corruption which… does not exist,” Sanchez told parliament.

“I never knew about, nor would I have tolerated, any of these practices,” he said in reference to his former transport minister Abalos, denying that the Socialists profited from illegal funding.

“We are not infallible, but we will not make the mistake of staying silent or giving up.”

On Saturday, a judge who has led a two-year-long investigation into his wife Begona Gomez ordered a jury trial for alleged influence peddling and the confiscation of her passport.

Sanchez slammed the politically damaging probe for “precautionary measures that I believe… go beyond all reasonable limits”.

A verdict is due in the trial of Sanchez’s brother David for alleged irregularities in his appointment to a public-sector job in the southwestern province of Badajoz.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Sanchez’s mentor and predecessor as Socialist prime minister, was placed under formal investigation last month for alleged influence peddling in connection with the bailout of an airline.

Sanchez made the fight against corruption his watchword when he took power in 2018 after the main conservative Popular Party was convicted in its own graft affair.

The opposition has demanded Sanchez’s resignation and early elections, but the prime minister, one of the few remaining leftist leaders in Europe, insists he will see out his term until 2027.