Begona Gomez, the Spanish prime minister’s wife, has been asked to testify before a judge on July 5 in response to charges of corruption and influence peddling that prompted Premier Pedro Sanchez to consider resigning in April.
The request was issued as part of an initial probe into whether she used her position to influence commercial operations, according to the investigative court on Tuesday.
Sanchez announced late in April that he will continue in office after taking a five-day leave of absence to consider resignation amid a court probe into his wife, which he called false and engineered by right-wing political opponents.
The Madrid prosecutor’s office filed an appeal to have the case dropped for lack of evidence, but the investigating judge overruled it.
The opposition has regularly called for Sanchez’s resignation as head of Spain’s minority socialist coalition government.
Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, an anti-corruption activist group directed by Miguel Bernad, a lawyer and politician who campaigned for a far-right party in European elections, submitted the complaint in a private capacity.
Manos Limpias claims Begona Gomez “used her influence as the prime minister’s wife to secure sponsors for a university master’s degree course that she ran.”
Gomez has not made any public comment since the court opened the investigation.
The case has triggered international repercussions.
Last month, Spain withdrew its ambassador to Buenos Aires after Argentina’s President Javier Milei called Gomez ‘corrupt’ during a far-right rally in Madrid.
