Ábalos, García Ortiz, Leire Díez, Mazón, the CNIO… The twelve “bells” that marked a critical year 2025 for the PSOE and the government

1

Scandals at the CNIO

The year 2025 has inherited the inertia of the previous year. The scandal, revealed by this newspaper in December 2024, at the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) once again dominated public opinion in the first month of 2025. ABC was the first to publish the questionable activities that the agency dependent on the Ministry of Science had carried out during the mandate of María Blasco. From the payment of almost a million euros in the purchase of works of art, to the collection of bonuses by the director. All the information published by this newspaper for two months forced the dismissal of its two directors, including Blasco, on January 29, 2025. At the end of the year, new revelations about irregularities led Anticorruption to open an investigation into the management of the center.

2

A weak government in Parliament and abroad

The CNIO was not an isolated episode, but rather the prelude to a disastrous first quarter for the Government. The instability and parliamentary weakness of the Executive when it comes to approving laws in Parliament has been palpable throughout 2025. La Moncloa has not yet presented the General State Budgets and has maintained those of 2023, despite the fact that this Monday the spokesperson for the Minister Elma Saiz insisted that its presentation is “a constitutional obligation”.

However, the budgets do not mark the end of the government’s legislative instability this year, but rather the beginning. Sánchez must have seen how some of his inauguration partners joined forces with the opposition to inflict painful defeats on the coalition government. It should be noted that one of the most painful defeats was the failure to cede immigration powers to Catalonia. A refusal which motivated, in part, Junts’ decision to break the nomination agreement with the PSOE, even if ABC revealed that the two parties continue to negotiate in the shadows.

In addition, the search for difficult balances between international and national politics caused Sánchez to lose positions abroad due to his continued friction with the United States (due to contracts with Huawei or defense spending), European allies or Israel.

3

Migration crisis of minors in the Canary Islands

March was a busy month in Moncloa. Added to the non-presentation of the EMP is the management and relocation of overcrowded unaccompanied migrant minors in the Canary Islands, which will reach its peak this summer. The agreement between the Government and the Juntas for the approval of an unequal distribution of minors between Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish territories has provoked a cascade of rudeness on the part of several communities governed by the PP. After several appeals to the Constitutional Court and numerous complaints to the Supreme Court, the Government began to move the minors, in a fluid manner, in September of this year, five months after its approval in the Council of Ministers. Certainly, although no longer forgotten at the end of the year, despite the discomfort of the Canarian government, the Central Executive did not manage to expel even 10% of immigrant minors as it was obliged to do.

4

Santos Cerdán and the president’s brother

Courtesy of the massive power outage that the entire peninsula suffered on April 28, 2025. Spring was the beginning of a massive explosion of corruption cases around the government and its leader. The first, his brother, the musician. After having testified several times, on May 22 the investigating judge in charge of the case he sent him to the magistracy with the former general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura, Miguel Ángel Gallardo. The reason: alleged crimes of influence peddling and prevarication in the context of his hiring at the Provincial Delegation of Badajoz. The result has not yet come. For the moment, the start of the oral trial is already scheduled for the end of next May.

June inherited May’s corruption. The arrival of heat led to a new earthquake. Santos Cerdán, Sánchez’s right-hand man, was identified by a UCO report as a member of a criminal organization that allegedly awarded public works in exchange for illegal bribes. His resignation and the issuance of his deputy certificate were as rapid as his entry into prison. On June 30, the “discreet” Cerdán broke through the walls of Soto del Real prison due to the risk of escape and destruction of evidence. Ten days before, another unusual image had occurred, the entry of UCO agents into the socialist headquarters of Ferraz (in addition to Adif and Transports), to collect data on the mask plot.

5

Feijóo, his National Congress and Vox

Corruption scandals surrounding the government attracted the attention of the PP during its National Congress in July. Feijóo was re-elected president of the People’s Party and defended an increasingly complicated idea over the months: forming a future government without Vox.

6

Progress in the Begoña case

Another lesson learned that 2025 leaves behind is that Judge Peinado does not rest in summer. The magistrate, in mid-August, informed the president’s wife of the accusation of a new crime: embezzlement of public funds. Despite the numerous corrections made by the Madrid court to the judge’s assertions, Gómez will be tried by a popular jury. Peinado will have until April 2026 to gather information before a hypothetical trial.

7

Mazón’s resignation

A year after the tragic damage that devastated Valencia, the president of the Generalitat resigned. He did it on November 3 with a “I can’t take it anymore.” He did not call elections or renounce his status as regional deputy and appealed to a “living majority”, which Pérez Llorca inherited. From the first weeks, he tried to distance himself from the leadership of his predecessor.

8

First state attorney general convicted

Although in the fall the government tried to sideline issues like Gaza, the 50 years of the end of the dictatorship or the resignation of Mazón, its problems did not stop. The first setback came with the conviction of the state attorney general. On November 20, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the conviction of Álvaro García Ortiz for the crime of revealing secrets about Isabel Díez Ayuso’s boyfriend, which he later justified in his conviction. After ten days of a trial that dominated public opinion, the Supreme Court sanctioned García Ortiz with a two-year ban from the post of state attorney general and a fine of 7,200 euros. The government, which throughout the legal process had defended the prosecutor’s innocence and had suggested the possible existence of a “legal war”, had to respect the sentence despite expressing its dissatisfaction.

9

Ábalos and Koldo, in prison

Without being able to assimilate the “shock” of the conviction of the state attorney general, the government had to face the second entry into prison of a former organizational secretary of the PSOE. In this case, José Luis Ábalos. Together with his former advisor Koldo García, the former Minister of Transport was placed in preventive detention due to the risk of flight after the anti-corruption prosecution requested 24 years in prison for the allocation of medical supplies in exchange for illegal commissions during the Covid pandemic.

10

The paradox of the most feminist PSOE

Barely a month before the end of the year, a party that had waved the flag of feminism within its legislature like the PSOE found itself faced with an avalanche of internal complaints of sexual and workplace harassment, accompanied by mismanagement, which provoked indignation within the party. Paco Salazar and José Tomé were among the socialist leaders involved in these most notable cases. Their behavior led Sumar – a government partner – to demand “radical changes” within the Executive, but nothing happened.

11

Leire Díez, the “plumber”

And while the alleged sexist treatment emerged like foam in the PSOE, the name of Leire Díez, already famous throughout the year, resounded again within the walls of Ferraz. After the leak in May of the audios which presented her as a “plumber” of the PSOE, the “investigative journalist” was arrested at the same time as the former president of SEPI, Vicente Fernández – close to Minister María Jesús Montero -, and with Antxon López, Santos Cerdán’s alleged partner in the Servinabar company. The reason: the possibility of having participated in a criminal organization rigging public contracts in exchange for bribes. Alongside the arrests, UCO agents searched the Ministries of Finance and Transition, as well as the Correos company.

12

Socialist debacle in Extremadura

The final straw for the PSOE will come during the elections in Extremadura. The Socialists, led by their candidate Miguel Ángel Gallardo, obtained the worst results in the history of the formation in your favorite territory. The consequence: 60% of votes clustered on the right. A trend appreciated by Vox, the only one, with Podemos, to have considerably increased its seats in the Extremadura Assembly.