Corruption cases keep piling up around Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain, targeting his political allies, associates and former ministers. Even his wife, Begoña Gómez, was set to surrender her passport on Wednesday after a judge ordered her to stand trial for corruption.
On the face of it, the trial of Ms. Gómez seems like a potential coup de grâce for Mr. Sánchez, Europe’s longest-serving left-wing leader and one who has gained international prominence for standing up to President Trump over Iran and migration. But analysts say the prime minister, who is known for his survival skills, is transforming the case against his wife into a lifeline.
The government argues that the case is a deeply flawed hit job by an obsessed judge, whose ruling on the case compared the Sánchez government to “absolutist regimes.” Ms. Gómez is accused of improperly using her influence to support a bid for a public contract by companies to which she has personal and professional ties. She denies the accusation, and her supporters have accused the judge of victimizing her to harm her husband.
Analysts say that by portraying the Sánchez family as the victim of an overreaching mudslinging operation, the government is seeking to muddy all the judicial waters. That tactic, if successful, might mitigate the reputational damage inflicted by the other cases, including a 24-year sentence for graft handed down to a key Sánchez ally this week, according to Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University of Madrid.
“It creates the idea of a general trial against the government,” Mr. Simón said. “This is the card he is trying to play.”
Publicly, the government says it is appalled by the suggestion that Ms. Gómez’s case has handed her husband political leverage. “There can be nothing positive about this matter,” said Alexandra Gil Polo, a government spokeswoman, “given that this conduct, this obsession, affects an innocent person.”
But privately, senior officials from the government and Mr. Sánchez’ party say the case against his wife was a self-inflicted wound by his opponents. Like his clashes with Mr. Trump, the trial of his wife has handed him an issue with which to mobilize unenthusiastic left-wing voters.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Sánchez acknowledged the concerns caused by the wave of cases but insisted that his government had rooted out corruption and that justice needed to take its course. He also said it was necessary to examine “the anatomy” of the cases to dispel what he called purposeful “confusion” created by his political opponents.
He then turned to the “cases opened against my family — my wife and my brother,” who is also on trial for influence peddling. He drew heckles when he said the cases were hard to discuss because “they affect people I love, and because I know without the slightest shadow of a doubt that they are built on unfounded accusations.”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative opposition, spoke immediately after Mr. Sánchez and tried to lump Ms. Gómez’s case back in with the others to create a general sense of guilt.
“These are not bumps in the road; this is your corruption,” said Mr. Feijóo, who demanded new elections. “Come on — justify all of this?” he said, reading a list of cases. “It’s impossible.”
Ms. Gómez has been under investigation since 2024, when a conservative group that describes itself as antigraft filed a complaint against her. A judge ordered her last weekend to stand trial for charges of embezzlement, corruption and influence peddling.
That judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, has been serenaded by conservatives outside his office. But senior government officials have accused him of bias.
Óscar Puente, the transportation minister, said that Mr. Peinado had “an unhealthy obsession with taking down the president’s wife, by any means necessary.” Patxi López, a Socialist Party leader in Parliament, said he “should not be a judge.” Others, defending their boss’s wife, have seized on connections between Mr. Peinado’s own wife and daughter and conservative politicians in Madrid. “It is a perverse coincidence,” said Diana Morant, the minister of science and innovation.
Commentators have speculated that the judge, who in September will turn 72, the mandatory retirement age, is pursuing a last political crusade.
Mr. Peinado did not return a request for comment and has not commented elsewhere on the criticism.
The judge’s critics, in addition to finding fault in his 84-page ruling, have latched on to the fact that higher courts previously struck down some of Mr. Peinado’s initiatives against Ms. Gómez, casting them as groundless. National police unions have rejected the judge’s argument for confiscating Ms. Gómez’s passport, in which he suggested that the police officers assigned to protect her “could help her flee.”
The tensions over Ms. Gómez and other corruption cases have divided society and, analysts say, undermined public trust in politicians and the judiciary.
All of the political battles over the courts, Mr. Simón said, have created the danger of “more polarization and the erosion of the institutions,” adding that it was something “we are seeing more of everywhere.”
Carlos Barragán contributed reporting.
