The judge and his wife: the justice factor in Sánchez’s campaign

Yesterday morning – whilst opposing factions of Spanish public opinion were accusing one another of being the vultures of Maricarmen, the elderly lady who had been evicted and died the previous evening in hospital – a judge from the Badajoz court entered the headquarters of the Audiencia Nacional, the public prosecutor’s office based in Madrid which deals with the most serious criminal cases across the country. The judge was Beatriz Biedma and on this occasion she was appearing as a civil party in the investigation being led by her colleague Santiago Pedraz into one of the most explosive cases for the Spanish Socialist Party: the ‘PSOE Watergate’ or, as it is known in Spain, the ‘cloaca’, in reference to the secret group tasked with obstructing investigations into party members and the family of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Beatriz Biedma is, in fact, the investigating judge who has committed David Sánchez, the Prime Minister’s brother, to stand trial. He is alleged to have had a tailor-made post created for himself within the cultural services department in Badajoz, obtained through a rigged recruitment process with the complicity of the former provincial president, the Socialist Miguel Ángel Gallardo.

Biedma has joined the proceedings as a civil claimant because, she accuses the magistrate, the ‘sewer’ that is the PSOE did not merely limit itself to smearing the judges. In her case, they allegedly even turned to members of a local drug-trafficking clan to give her, as the saying goes, ‘a lesson’, counting on the fact that the judge was also investigating them. The evidence is set out in a report by the Civil Guard attached to the investigation files and published by the Spanish media. A woman from the Los Rochos clan, Cintia Rochos, known as ‘la Celsa’, is said to have been approached by former judge Sáenz de Tejada, who was struck off the judiciary for domestic violence offences. Subsequently, it is known that Judge Biedma was followed and that some unknown individuals even turned up at the gates of her daughters’ school. But above all, it is known that the names of the key figures in this story are all linked, in some way, to the notorious Leire Díez. From the violent former judge to the woman from the Los Rochos clan, via a number of businessmen already familiar from the reports on the Socialist ‘Watergate’ scandal, these names appear either in shared WhatsApp groups or, at the very least, in the diaries seized from the socialist fixer whom Sánchez has repeatedly referred to, dismissively, as a ‘former activist’, but who, according to investigators, ultimately reported everything back to the PSOE’s organisational secretary and Sánchez’s right-hand man: Santos Cerdán. Also yesterday, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced that it believes there is evidence against the PSOE, but prefers to wait before bringing a direct charge against the party, as a legal entity, for illegal financing and activities, which are currently attributable only to ‘lone wolves’. The news would be a bombshell on the eve of the elections.

Meanwhile, the latest pre-election campaign rumour is a ‘rumour’ that has been circulating in the media for several hours now: it appears that Sánchez wants to put his wife, Begoña Gomez, forward as a candidate in the general election on 29 November. Sources at the PSOE headquarters categorically state that this is a hoax, whilst the minister and government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, has retreated into a cryptic “I neither confirm nor deny”.

Begoña Gómez has been committed for trial on charges of influence peddling and embezzlement. The schedule of upcoming hearings and a possible conviction in 2027 were among the pitfalls that Sánchez had to avoid when choosing the election date. If his wife were to be elected to Parliament, she could even alter the course of the proceedings. For example, she could have her case transferred to a higher court, just as Gallardo – who was investigated and convicted alongside David Sánchez – attempted to do. At the time, the president of the province of Badajoz forced several party colleagues to resign so that he could secure a seat in the regional parliament, which would have allowed him to avoid the investigation – coincidentally – by Investigating Magistrate Biedma, whom others were trying by every means to remove. The ensuing scandal forced Gallardo to step down, whilst in Begoña’s case – where she has already been committed for trial – legal opinions differ and the move appears more risky. As a last resort, there is always the option of parliamentary immunity, but the greatest obstacle could be the PSOE’s code of ethics, which expressly prohibits the nomination of individuals facing trial.