A Spanish judge has formally ordered Begoña Gómez, wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, to stand trial before a popular jury on charges of influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds. Investigating magistrate Juan Carlos Peinado issued the order today, closing the pre-trial phase of a case that has shadowed the Government since April 2024.
Gómez’s former Moncloa aide, Cristina Álvarez, is also to be tried as a necessary co-operator in the embezzlement charge. The case now passes to the Madrid Provincial Court and, under Spain’s jury law, the order cannot be appealed.
The charges centre on an extraordinary chair in competitive social transformation that Gómez directed at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) from 2020. Spanish media reports of the order said software developed within the chair with university money and staff had its internet domain transferred to Gómez in July 2023, as she set up a private company.
The UCM has put its losses at €113,509 and is seeking damages from both defendants. The popular prosecution, private accusers led by the association Hazte Oír and including the Vox party, is seeking a combined 13 years in prison for Gómez and six for Álvarez.
The public prosecutor’s office, by contrast, has maintained that no crime was committed and asked for the case to be dropped.
Gómez’s lawyer Jaime Campaner has argued the chair followed university rules, that she worked unpaid and that the platform always remained available to the UCM. Álvarez’s defence said her role was limited to accompanying Gómez to a single meeting at the university.
Peinado also described Álvarez’s failure to attend a preliminary hearing on September 8, while she was outside Spain, as deliberate defiance of the court.
Moncloa, the seat of the Spanish Government, condemned the decision and described the investigation as arbitrary and unjust. Sources there said the case was driven only by Gómez being the Prime Minister’s wife, though they trusted the jury to be impartial.
They also complained that a ruling had again emerged as Sánchez was leaving on an international trip.
Spanish science minister Diana Morant questioned whether any jury could approach the case without prejudice after two years of intense media coverage. Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) organisation secretary Rebeca Torró mocked the order as the judge’s final service to the nation before retirement.
On July 16, the Madrid Provincial Court threw out two of the four charges originally brought against her and moved businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés into separate proceedings. Peinado has also opened another strand examining public contracts funded by the European Union and awarded to firms tied to Barrabés.
Sánchez, who has not been charged, has portrayed the inquiries as a campaign to drive him from office.
