Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Get the Editor’s Digest free
In this weekly newsletter, Roula Khalaf, Editor of FT, chooses her favorite stories.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has apologised to Spaniards for being misled by a top aide accused of corruption who resigned after working “side by side” with the prime minister for more than a decade.
The alleged kickbacks received by Santos Cerdán, a senior official in Sanchez’s Socialist party, is the latest corruption scandal to surround the premier’s close circle, including his wife, brother, attorney-general and a former transport minister.
“I want to apologise,” Sánchez said on Thursday, while insisting he would not step down or call a snap election. But he said the allegations against Cerdán, a lawmaker who was number three in the party hierarchy, were “a huge disappointment”.
The case is devastating for the prime minister who has been at the helm since 2018. His minority coalition is unable pass legislation, and is losing credibility in the eyes many Spaniards.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition People’s party, said: “He has to go . . . It is not plausible that Sánchez, who controlled everything, did not know anything. He must immediately call elections.”
Sánchez said he ordered Cerdán to quit on Thursday after revelations in a police report that he “appeared to be the person in charge of taking” kickbacks worth hundreds of thousands of euros from the construction company Acciona.
Sánchez said he had known Cerdán for 11 years and worked “shoulder to shoulder” with him. “Until this very morning I was convinced of Santos Cerdán’s integrity,” he said.
In a sign of his closeness, the prime minister made Cerdán his chief negotiator for a controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists — the only significant bill passed since the last election and part of a deal that enabled Sánchez to stay in power.
On the kickback allegations, the premier said: “It causes me great indignation and deep sadness to see that a political project in which millions of people put their faith . . . ”It is saddening to see that a political project in which millions of people put their faith can be affected by a few.”
A judge on Thursday called on Cerdán to testify later this month, saying there was “strong evidence” that he was involved in the “improper awarding” of public works contracts in exchange for payment.
In a resignation statement, Cerdán said: “I’ve never committed any crime nor have I been complicit in one.”
Sánchez also said he was ordering an external audit of the Socialist party’s finances and would restructure its leadership.
Feijóo said: “Where the audit is needed is in the government.”
Acciona said that it was “surprised and concerned” by the allegations of kickbacks, and announced an internal investigation. “Acciona will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities in order to clarify the facts,” said the company.
Earlier this week Sánchez’s attorney-general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was put on course to stand trial by a judge investigating allegations of confidential information leaks in a tax fraud case involving the partner of one of the premier’s conservative rivals, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The prime minister’s brother, David Sánchez, is set to stand trial for alleged crimes of influence peddling and misuse of public funds in relation to his job in a provincial government.
Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez is being investigated by a judge over allegations of corruption and influence peddling.
José Luis Ábalos, a former transport minister who appeared in the recordings with Cerdán, is being investigated over a different alleged kickback scheme related to Covid-19 medical contracts.
All deny all wrongdoing.
Sánchez has claimed he is the victim of a “harassment and bullying operation” orchestrated by rightwing politicians, judges and media outlets.
