A new corruption-related complaint against the Spanish prime minister's wife and a new organization with far-right links that is behind it. The ultra-conservative association Hazte Oír ("Make Yourself Heard") has this Friday presented a new judicial complaint against Begoña Gómez for alleged influence peddling. It is the same set of allegations for which a Madrid judge decided a few days ago to open proceedings against the wife of Pedro Sánchez, and which - according to his narrative - prompted the prime minister to shut humself in to the prime ministerial residence at La Moncloa to "reflect” of whether or not he will remain in office. The new complaint is being presented, by decision of its promoters, to Madrid Court No 41, the same court of first instance that approved the investigation of Gómez in the original complaint, made by the Manos Limpias group. It is, according to the highly-conservative Catholic Church-oriented Hazte Oír, a "well-founded complaint based on facts and information presented in a chronological and rigorous manner". In a post on X, the organization recalls that "weeks ago" they "committed" to the presenting of "a battery of legal actions" against Gómez.
They also note in their social media post that this complaint comes on top of three others that the same group already presented against the Spanish PM's partner to different legal offices: the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the European Anti-Fraud Office, and the Spanish Solicitor General's Office. Now, the far-right body justifies presenting this complaint before the Madrid court since, in its opinion, Spanish public prosecutors cannot be independent since they are part of "a hierarchical organization dependent on the Chief Prosecutor of the State, which at the same time depends on the prime minister of the government".
The argument Hazte Oír puts on the table to launch this new offensive against Begoña Gómez is that there are indications that Articles 429 and 430 of the Spanish Penal Code have been breached. "We understand that since the arrival of her husband, for the second time, at the General Secretariat of the PSOE and, especially since his arrival as Prime Minister of Spain, she has benefited from her status as a wife to establish commercial and professional relationships with different companies and entities".
What's more, Hazte Oír boasts of having presented a complaint that is "wider" than the one presented by Manos Limpias, the other extremist pseudo-union that presented a complaint that has prompted the current situation of paralysis in Spanish politics. "We only want to avoid the case being closed", says the association.
PSOE to turn Saturday meeting into an act of support for Sánchez
This Friday, the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) decided to postpone until next Tuesday the substantive part of their federal committee meeting scheduled for this Saturday at their headquarters in Madrid: that is, the approval of their candidate lists for the European elections in June, which are expected to ratify the third-ranked deputy PM and ecological transition minister, Teresa Ribera, as the number 1 candidate of the Socialists in the elections to the European Parliament.
The Saturday meeting, however, will still be held. The PSOE will transform it into an act of support for Pedro Sánchez, as has been officially noted: it will be a meeting to "analyze the current political situation", and the limbo in which Spanish politics has been placed since the head of the executive announced that he is shutting himself into the Moncloa palace to "reflect" on whether or not he will remain in office.