Agents of the Spanish Civil Guard’s elite Central Operative Unit (UCO) raided the offices of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain’s Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) party to collect evidence for a corruption probe on Wednesday, 27 May.
POLITICO reports that this investigation is about PM Sánchez and members of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party’s alleged use of illegal means to attempt to discredit their critics and those who are ‘engaged in legal proceedings against the government’. Those ‘legal proceedings’ include investigations into potential financial crimes.
The party is already embroiled in a number of scandals. Anna Fuentes, in charge of the party’s finances, has recently been indicted for alleged financial fraud.
PM Sánchez was in the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIV while the raid on his party’s offices was taking place.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the centre-right opposition Partido Popular (PP) party, has called for a new election amidst the mounting scandals around PM Sánchez, which have prompted mass protests in Madrid. However, the Prime Minister so far has ruled out calling a new election before his term expires in May 2027.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of the right-wing populist Vox Party, has written on X this upon news of the police raid on the Socialists’ headquarters:
‘We must stop and put on trial the Sánchez and Zapatero mafia. We must recover a decent Spain. ENOUGH.’
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the other person mentioned in the tweet, is also a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party and served as prime minister of Spain from 2004 to 2011. He, too, has been recently indicted—he was charged with money laundering in connection with a government bailout scheme for an airline.
PM Sánchez was re-elected in July 2023. However, even his retention of power was controversial.
His party got both a smaller share of the popular vote and won fewer seats in the Congress of Deputies than the PP. Thus, in order to form a coalition government, PM Sánchez had to strike a deal with the Catalan separatist Junts party. The dubious ‘bargain’ included giving pardons to members of the movement who were staying abroad to avoid prosecution for taking part in the illegal independence movement of 2017.
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