Spanish court charges key Sánchez ally with money laundering

Spain’s National Court on Tuesday charged former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with money laundering, influence peddling and other criminal offenses committed in connection with the €53 million bailout of Plus Ultra airlines.

In a statement, the Court confirmed that officers of the National Police’s Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit had raided the former prime minister’s offices and would also be carrying out searches in buildings belonging to three unnamed companies. The Court has ordered the ex-Socialist Party leader to testify on June 2.

Zapatero has consistently denied ever having received any payments from Plus Ultra or having committed any wrongdoing.

The indictment represents a major blow for current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is reeling from a string of defeats in key regional elections. Although the former Socialist Party leader, who ruled Spain between 2004 and 2011, was initially not one of Sánchez’s key supporters, he has become a major ally in recent years.

During Spain’s 2023 national elections, Zapatero enthusiastically campaigned on Sánchez’s behalf. His support was key in the immediate aftermath of a disastrous debate performance that left many doubting the country’s prime minister had the capacity to remain in power, and ultimately helped rally an “old guard” that had long been skeptical of Sánchez.

Zapatero’s indictment is unprecedented.

Although other Spanish prime ministers have been called to testify in corruption cases, never before has a former head of the country’s government been charged with such a serious crime. It comes on the heels of several other corruption cases involving high-ranking members of the Socialist Party, including former Public Works and Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, another longtime Sánchez ally.

The investigation into the former prime minister involves the Spanish government’s 2021 bailout of Plus Ultra Airlines, one of the companies Madrid determined to be of such strategic importance to merit economic support during the Covid pandemic.

Because the airline, which operates flights between Spain and Latin America, was alleged to have connections with then-Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s government, authorities launched an investigation into whether any of the bailout cash could have ended up in the wrong hands.

After the Public Prosecutor determined no evidence of a crime had been found, a Madrid judge ordered the case to be closed in 2023. But last December, Spanish police raided the airline’s headquarters and arrested its president, Julio Martínez, for alleged money laundering.

During a hearing in the Spanish Senate earlier this year, Zapatero acknowledged that over the course of several years, he had been paid €463,000 for “written and oral consulting services” for Análisis Relevante, a company owned by Martínez, whom he described as a “friend.” He also that he had never undertaken any work on behalf of Plus Ultra.

Spain’s leading opposition party, the center-right People’s Party, seized on Zapatero’s indictment to attack Sánchez. “The principle that links the last two Socialist prime ministers of Spain is corruption,” the party said in a statement. “Both have denigrated the institution they represent or have represented.”

But the Socialist Party’s organizational secretary, Rebeca Torró, came out in defense of Spain’s former head of government and suggested his indictment was politically motivated.

“José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was Prime Minister for two terms marked by an ambitious program to expand rights, equality, and social protection,” she wrote on X. “The right and the far right have never forgiven him for these advances.”