Sanchez Defies Corruption Scandals as Opposition Offers Path to Early Elections

A Spanish court on Monday dropped one charge against David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother, ruling that the alleged acceptance of an illegal appointment in 2017 had lapsed under the statute of limitations. The Badajoz tribunal nonetheless confirmed that the trial for influence peddling will continue, a partial exoneration that offers a fleeting respite to Pedro Sánchez as his minority government battles a cascade of corruption probes.

The respite is narrow. The ‘Ferraz sewers’ case, named after the Socialist party headquarters, has placed the PSOE itself under formal investigation as a legal entity. Judicial documents suggest that a party fixer, Leire Díez, received €4,000 a month to obstruct inquiries touching the premier’s inner circle and his family. Across nine separate proceedings, Italian press tally some forty defendants, mapping what critics describe as a protective system erected around Sánchez.

Polls published in El Mundo show the PSOE slumping in six key autonomous communities since the scandals erupted. While Sánchez defiantly tells allies he will fight “until 2027 and beyond,” as many as forty senior party figures are reported to favour early elections to limit the damage. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has seized the moment, offering the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties Junts and PNV a solo conservative government—without the far‑right Vox—that would “clean the institutions” and immediately call snap elections. He claims that 184 deputies, from Vox to the Basque nationalists, support such a move, though the parliamentary arithmetic remains unconfirmed.

Viewed from Brussels, where Sánchez is a prominent pro‑European voice, the instability is a source of unease. But analysts in London note that the premier has repeatedly defied political obituaries, and the fragmentation of the right may yet preserve his hold on power. The coming weeks will test whether the accumulation of legal liability—and the PSOE’s own exposure as a defendant—erodes the patience of the parliamentary allies on whom Sánchez depends.