The legal cases surrounding the government of Pedro Sánchez have only multiplied and penetrated deeper and deeper into Ferraz and the Moncloa Palace. The Koldo affair, the investigations into Begoña Gómez and the brother of Pedro Sánchez, the prosecution of Leire Díez and the conviction of the Attorney General are the stages that marked the year 2025 in the Spanish courts, alongside the investigation into the management of DANA by the government of Carlos Mazón or the proceedings against Íñigo Errejón for the sexual assault of Elisa Mouliaá.
2025 is the year when two PSOE organizational secretaries – including a former transport minister – came to power. Soto of Real. The year that shed light on so-called sewers of the PSOE and revealed, in added time, a corruption plot within the National Company of Industrial Participations (SEPI) of which almost everything is still unknown. The year that culminated in a historic conviction by the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. The atmosphere is unbearable, but the president of the government maintains his position and says he is convinced of exhausting the legislature.
The controversy sparked by amnesty is not yet complete for Carles Puigdemont He is no longer in the spotlight, even if the independence leader has not managed to return to Spain through the front door. The pardon measure which focused the PP’s opposition efforts, approved by the Constitutional Court in June, has been relegated to the background in the public debate now dominated by a long list of legal scandals.
Some of the cases that made the news were already underway last year: the Koldo case, the Begoña case, the Attorney General’s case and the case against Miguel Ángel Gallardo and the president’s brother. However, protagonists like Leire Díez were completely unknown to ordinary citizens at the beginning of the year. Now the alleged plumber is accused in two different proceedings.
The conviction of García Ortiz, an unprecedented event
The conviction of Álvaro García Ortiz is probably the most significant event to occur in the Spanish courts in 2025. It is a historic and unprecedented event. García Ortiz’s trial was held in November, a little more than a year after the Supreme Court agreed to investigate the sixth state authority. The Second Chamber, presided over by Andrés Martínez Arrieta since September of this year, questioned almost forty witnesses during six days of trial.
The judgment was communicated on November 20, but the sentence was not pronounced until December 9. The Supreme Court concluded that Álvaro García Ortiz or “someone around him, with his knowledge” leaked an email in which the lawyer of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s partner acknowledged that his client had committed two crimes against the Public Treasury.
The court also considered criminal the press release issued by the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office the day after the leak, which included the recognition of the crimes. García Ortiz is the author of the note, as he himself has admitted on several occasions, within and outside the Supreme Court. The two-year ban from the post of Attorney General led to the departure of Álvaro García Ortiz and the appointment of his successor, Teresa Peramato.
Where does the Koldo affair begin and end?
The National Court has begun investigating the Koldo case, considered an alleged scheme to rig medical supply contracts during the pandemic. The investigation expanded this year, revealing another conspiracy in public works contracts and implicating the former Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, and his successor at the PSOE Organizing Secretariat, Santos Cerdán. Ábalos entered Soto del Real prison with Koldo García on November 27where Cerdán spent 142 days after his admission on June 30.
Supreme Court instructor Leopoldo Puente has already referred the mask case to court, while he is still investigating the extent of the rigging of construction contracts that mainly benefited Acciona and Servinabar.
The latter company belongs to Antxon Alonso, a close friend of Cerdán, and is 45% owned by the former Navarrese socialist. The judge believes that the leaders of corruption could have taken a “loot” of five million in exchange for rewards hand-picked by the Ministry of Transport and its dependent entities.
The investigation into the Koldo affair also looked into cash handling at Ferraz. A UCO report revealed in early October a series of WhatsApp messages in which Koldo García spoke with different interlocutors about money deliveries by the PSOE, deliveries which were sometimes made through his ex-wife, Patricia Úriz, or his brother Joseba García. Previously, the PSOE had provided documents on party expense regulations, and some messages do not match this information. Now, the National Court is investigating these payments in a separate document that includes new documents required from Ferraz.
Leire Díez, from alleged plumber to alleged corrupt
Leire Díez’s name emerged following a meeting she herself had in February with a businessman prosecuted for fraud in the hydrocarbon sector and fugitive from justice in Dubai, Alejandro Hamlyn. The telematic meeting was attended by businessman Javier Pérez Dolset and lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, in whose office all three were located. The objective of the meeting was clear: Leire Díez and Dolset wanted sensitive information about UCOwhich investigates the causes of government corruption, and in exchange offered to ease Hamlyn’s legal future through the DA’s office.
The case is being investigated at the Court of Instruction number 9 in Madrid, along with two other similar operations in which Díez tried to obtain information from prosecutors Ignacio Stampa and José Grinda. The investigation revealed that the alleged plumber introduced herself as Cerdán’s “right hand” in the shadows and claimed to act on behalf of the PSOE or on the instructions of the President of the Government himself, who had ordered the “cleaning”.
The Socialist Party and Leire Díez have denied any link for months. The person under investigation said she was simply a journalist and former PSOE activist, but had worked in state-owned companies Enusa and Correos. The situation changed on Wednesday, December 10, when the UCO arrested Díez, Antxon Alonso (Cerdán associate) and the former president of the National Company of Industrial Participations (SEPI), Vicente Fernández.
The opening of an investigation against each of them for an alleged plot to rig contracts worth more than €130 million shook the political council for the umpteenth time this year, bursting in like a suspense which promises even more frenzy during the next legal season.
The Begoña affair and the trial of David Sánchez
Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Peinado continues the investigation into Begoña Gómez, the opening of which led to a meeting between Leire Díez with Cerdán and Antonio Hernando in Ferraz in 2024. The wife of the president of the government is accused of five crimes in a cause whose purpose has broadened and modified over the months. Gómez is accused of influence peddling, commercial corruption, embezzlement, labor intrusion and embezzlement.
Juan Carlos Peinado continues to follow Begoña Gómez’s journey at Complutense University and the letters of recommendation from businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, and insists on investigating the role of the president’s wife in the government’s rescue of Air Europa, despite denials from the Madrid Provincial Court. Throughout this year, he focused his efforts on the investigation the hiring of a Moncloa advisor named Cristina Álvarez.
This discretionary appointment position carried out certain tasks related to the chair of Begoña Gómez at the Complutense University of Madrid. Although this work is not part of the functions assigned to the councilor, Juan Carlos Peinado considers that there is a misappropriation of public funds. The thesis is that public money (Álvarez’s salary) was used in favor of Begoña Gómez’s private interests. Thesis endorsed by the Provincial Court, which in October gave its approval to the investigation into these events.
During the hearing, Judge Peinado went a second time to the Moncloa Palace to collect the testimony of Félix Bolaños, as he had already done with Pedro Sánchez. Hairstyle He even called for the indictment of the head of Justicebut the Supreme Court rejected it for failing to see “any indicative support” against it.
In Badajoz, the trial against the president’s brother, David Sánchez, and the leader of the PSOE of Extremadura, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, is already on its way to the oral trial, which will take place at the end of May and beginning of June. Instructor Beatriz Biedma agreed to continue them on April 28. On May 16, Gallardo announced that he would join the Assembly of Extremadura and on May 29 he took office. This implied that the trial would be held in the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura, and not in the Provincial Court. But on June 30, the TSJ ruled that Gallardo’s assessment was fraudulent.
Gallardo, accused of influence peddling and prevarication, presented himself as PSOE candidate in Extremadura elections on December 21, during which the Socialists suffered a debacle, losing 10 seats. The same afternoon, the leader of the PSOE of Extremadura presented his resignation.
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