Spain's Sanchez says he will stay on as PM despite wife's graft probe

FRANCE 24

April 29, 2024 at 5:09 a.m.·1 min read

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that he would continue in office in response to a graft probe of his wife that he says amounts to a campaign of harassment.

Sanchez announced last Wednesday that he was mulling resignation after a Madrid court opened a preliminary probe into suspected influence peddling and corruption targeting his wife Begona Gomez.

"I need to stop and think whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour," he wrote in a four-page letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Thousands of supporters massed outside the headquarters of Sanchez's Socialist party in Madrid on Saturday chanting "Pedro, stay!"

Sanchez has said the move against his wife is part of a campaign of "harassment" against them both waged by "media heavily influenced by the right and far right" and supported by the conservative opposition.

Spain's public prosecutor's office on Thursday requested the dismissal of the investigation.

But Sanchez, an expert in political survival who has made a career out of taking political gambles, has suspended all his public duties and retreated into silence.

That amnesty, in exchange for the support of Catalan separatist parties, still needs final approval in parliament.

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