A Spanish judge has placed former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero under formal investigation over a €53 million state bailout for the airline Plus Ultra, and has named him as the alleged head of an influence-peddling network. The move makes him the first former Spanish prime minister to be investigated for corruption since the country returned to democracy.
José Luis Calama, the investigating magistrate at Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional), set out the accusation in the ruling summoning Zapatero to give evidence as a formal suspect on June 2, which the court itself made public.
In that ruling, Calama said the inquiry had established the existence of a “stable and hierarchical” structure for the unlawful exercise of influence, which he described as organised and led by Zapatero. The former prime minister, the judge said, had put his personal contacts and his access to senior officials at the service of third parties seeking favourable decisions.
The alleged aim was economic gain through influence-peddling before public bodies, mainly on behalf of Plus Ultra, the carrier rescued by the government during the pandemic.
Calama also ordered searches of the former prime minister’s office and several companies, and lifted the secrecy order on the case file. Zapatero, who led a Socialist government between 2004 and 2011, denies any wrongdoing.
A BAILOUT UNDER SCRUTINY
The case centres on the money awarded to Plus Ultra in March 2021 through a pandemic fund for strategically important companies, managed by the state holding company SEPI.
Investigators are examining whether part of that public money was diverted, and whether the airline and people linked to it took part in laundering. The Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police has led the inquiry for months.
The rescue was granted by the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a fellow Socialist. Spain’s right-wing opposition argued at the time that Plus Ultra was a marginal carrier rather than a strategic company.
THE MONEY TRAIL
Investigators have traced payments to Zapatero and to firms linked to his family. In his ruling, Calama said the alleged network had used instrumental companies, simulated documentation and opaque financial channels to exert unlawful influence and conceal the origin and destination of funds. He said the influence was not aimed at general goodwill but at securing one specific administrative decision: the approval and payment of the Plus Ultra aid under the Solvency Support Fund.
The judge added that the sequence of meetings, contacts and communications, including early access to privileged information about the imminent grant, pointed to a network acting with the specific purpose of swaying the responsible body.
A close friend of the former prime minister, Julio Martínez, is alleged to have received money from Plus Ultra and to have later paid Zapatero through a company called Análisis Relevante. The firm paid Zapatero around €70,000 a year for consultancy work and also hired two of his daughters.
Zapatero told a Senate inquiry he had produced “oral and written reports” for the firm, though he declined to detail their content. He has rejected claims that he mediated in the rescue and called the accusations a campaign to discredit him.
A CASE STEEPED IN CHAVISMO
Plus Ultra has long drawn scrutiny over its Venezuelan ties, with much of its business concentrated in Venezuela and Cuba rather than Spain.
From 2017, a group of Venezuelan businessmen took a controlling stake through the company Snip Aviation, which holds about 47 per cent of the airline. Among them were Rodolfo Reyes and others said to be close to the Venezuelan magnate Camilo Ibrahim Issa, whom Spanish and Venezuelan media have linked to figures in Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle, including Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez.
As far back as 2018, the Venezuelan outlet Armando.info reported on the airline’s ties to Venezuelan investors, and the country’s then opposition-led National Assembly flagged Reyes and Ibrahim Issa over an alleged scheme involving state food programmes.
Spain’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor suspects part of the rescue money was funnelled abroad through shell companies tied to Venezuelan businessmen. The airline’s president and chief executive were arrested in late 2025.
A DECADE AS MADURO’S GO-BETWEEN
Zapatero’s name carries weight in the case because of his long role in Venezuela. He began acting as a mediator in 2014, with the backing of the South American bloc UNASUR, and became a frequent visitor to Caracas, meeting the jailed opposition figure Leopoldo López and serving as an election observer at votes the opposition and Western governments rejected as neither free nor fair.
He helped arrange the exile to Spain of opposition figure Edmundo González after the disputed July 28, 2024 presidential vote. Opposition leaders, among them María Corina Machado and Juan Guaidó, have accused him of favouring Maduro rather than acting as a neutral broker.
After United States forces captured Maduro in January 2026, the chavista National Assembly speaker, Jorge Rodríguez, publicly praised Zapatero’s part in freeing political prisoners, including five Spaniards. The European Parliament, by contrast, awarded its Sakharov Prize to Machado and González, and the European Union has refused to recognise Maduro’s claimed re-election.
WHAT COMES NEXT
The investigation remains open and Zapatero is due to answer the allegations on June 2. He retains the presumption of innocence and has not been charged.
The inquiry is politically sensitive for the governing Socialists, who approved the rescue and remain close to the former prime minister. For now, the case will be tested in court.
