The wife of Spain’s Prime Minister has been ordered to stand trial before a popular jury on corruption charges, in a case that has piled fresh pressure on Pedro Sánchez.
Investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado ruled on June 20 that Begoña Gómez should face trial over alleged influence peddling, business corruption, embezzlement and apropiación indebida (misappropriation of funds).
The order closes a two-year investigation and sends one of the most politically charged cases in recent Spanish history towards a jury court.
Peinado ordered Gómez to surrender her passport, barred her from leaving Spain and required her to report to a Madrid court every two weeks while proceedings continue.
The seizure of a passport from the spouse of a serving prime minister is rarely seen in Spain and marked a sharp escalation. Gómez is the first wife of a Spanish prime minister to be sent for trial on corruption charges.
Peinado has summoned Gómez and Álvarez to hand over their passports in person on June 24, and to state whether either holds any further travel document, whether diplomatic or issued by another country.
He imposed the same measures on Cristina Álvarez, an adviser to Gómez at the Moncloa palace, the seat of the Spanish Government. Businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés was also sent for trial, though without the same personal restrictions.
The investigation began in April 2024 with a complaint from the anti-corruption group Manos Limpias. It is now driven by a unified popular prosecution led by the right-wing campaign group Hazte Oír (Make Yourself Heard), backed by the Vox party and the group Iustitia Europa.
That prosecution is seeking a 24-year prison sentence for Gómez, one of the heaviest demands ever made by a private accusation in Spain. It is asking for 22 years for Álvarez and six for Barrabés.
The public prosecutor’s office, by contrast, has asked for the case to be dismissed, saying it sees no evidence of a crime. Gómez, a 55-year-old university director, denies any wrongdoing.
WHAT GÓMEZ IS ACCUSED OF
At the heart of the case is the claim that Gómez leveraged her position as the Prime Minister’s wife to boost her career and private business after he took office, securing advantages she would not otherwise have obtained. The judge says her proximity to Sánchez drove a radical shift in her professional path.
The influence-peddling count rests on letters of recommendation she signed for Barrabés, whose companies went on to win public contracts, some of them funded with European money.
The business-corruption count concerns sponsorships gathered from major Spanish firms, among them Google, Indra and Telefónica, for a university chair she set up at the Complutense University of Madrid. The judge alleges those funds were steered towards her own benefit rather than the public project they were meant to support.
The embezzlement count centres on Álvarez, a publicly paid Moncloa adviser, who allegedly handled personal errands, emails and diary tasks for Gómez rather than official work.
The misappropriation count relates to a software tool worth more than €113,000, financed by the university, that Gómez is alleged to have registered as a trademark in her own name. The Complutense University of Madrid has joined the case as an injured party, and all three defendants reject the accusations.
Peinado contends that Gómez built up this activity after taking leave in 2018 from a consultancy where she had worked for nearly two decades, shortly after her husband became Prime Minister. All three defendants reject the accusations.
ESCORT REMARK SPARKS REVOLT
Peinado’s justification for withdrawing the passport drew sharp criticism. The judge suggested that the police officers guarding Gómez could themselves help her flee, either on their own initiative or on orders from superiors.
Police unions reacted angrily. Jupol, the largest union within the National Police, demanded that Peinado retract the remark and called it “an outright outrage” to suggest officers might help spirit a defendant away from justice.
Interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has lodged a formal complaint against the judge with Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the body that governs the country’s courts.
The CGPJ’s standing committee held an emergency session and was due to decide whether to open disciplinary proceedings against Peinado over the wording of his order. Justice minister Félix Bolaños has said he expects the council to issue a “disciplinary correction”.
A FRAGILE GOVERNMENT UNDER STRAIN
Gómez’s lawyers have appealed her prosecution to the Provincial Court of Madrid, which could yet halt the case before any jury is convened. They are also expected to challenge the precautionary measures.
The Socialist Party said Gómez had faced judicial and political persecution for two years. The party has run a public campaign under the slogan “I am with Begoña”.
Sánchez, who has not been charged, has described the various investigations as a campaign to drive him from office. His Government has accused Peinado of pursuing inquiries that “only respond to political motives”.
The affair is one of several corruption inquiries closing in on the Prime Minister, whose Government rests on a fragile parliamentary majority.
His younger brother, David Sánchez, faces trial in a separate case, while former transport minister José Luis Ábalos is on trial over alleged kickbacks for public contracts.
Peinado has also opened a separate strand examining contracts awarded by the State-owned entity Red.es to a venture linking Barrabés and the consultancy KPMG, on suspicion of fraud against the European Union’s financial interests. He initially kept Gómez out of that line, and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office had earlier shelved its own inquiry into the EU money involved.
The opening of a trial does not imply any finding of guilt. Gómez, Álvarez and Barrabés retain the presumption of innocence, and it will fall to the jury to weigh the evidence once a date is set.
