Will the Spanish head of government fail to live up to the title of his own autobiography, Manuel de Resistancia ("Manual of Resistance"), published in 2019? Pedro Sanchez has, in any case, given himself five days to "reflect" and "answer the question of whether it is worthwhile" to "continue at the head of the government or [whether he must] renounce this honor." On Monday, April 29, the Socialist leader will announce his decision, he said in a "letter to citizens," published on his social media channels on the evening of April 24, to everyone's surprise.

In the morning, the courts had announced the opening of a preliminary investigation against his wife, Begoña Gomez, for influence peddling and corporate corruption, following a complaint lodged by the far-right group Manos Limpias ("Clean Hands"). "I'm aware that they're bringing a complaint against Begoña not because she's done anything illegal – they know there's no case – but because she's my wife," Sanchez wrote on X. "The right and the ultra-right have overstepped the bounds of respect for the family life of a government president" by trying to "dehumanize and [to] delegitimize the political opponent through complaints that are as scandalous as they are false."

A fundraising expert, Gomez continued her professional activity after her husband came to power in 2018. In Manos Limpias' complaint, which repeats information published by the El Confidencial website, she is accused of having signed a letter of recommendation for a business leader who was applying for public subsidies. She is also said to have met, in the summer of 2020, with the president of the Globalia group, Javier Hidalgo, to discuss possible partnerships while she was running a foundation, IE Africa Center. At the time, the CEO was negotiating a rescue plan with the government for his airline, Air Europa, which had been badly hit by the pandemic. These negotiations resulted in a loan of €475 million.

In an increasingly tense and polarized political climate, marked by several cases of alleged corruption, the two main political parties have been stepping up their attacks for several months. Since February, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has been confronted with the Koldo affair, named after the right-hand man of former infrastructure minister José Luis Abalos. Taking advantage of his access to the public administrations governed by the Socialists, this former security guard is said to have acted as an intermediary in the sale of masks, some of them defective, during the pandemic, in return for substantial commissions.

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