The Spanish prosecutor’s office has asked to drop the corruption case against Prime Minister Sanchez’s wife

Spanish prosecutors said today that they had asked to drop the corruption case against the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, prompting him to announce that he was considering resigning, Reuters reported.

The prosecutor’s office said it protested yesterday’s decision by a Madrid court to hear a private lawsuit by anti-corruption activists against the prime minister’s wife, Begonya Gomez, for influence peddling and corruption.

The Spanish anti-corruption organization Manos Limpias (“Clean Hands”), which is behind the claim, said earlier that it based its claim on media reports and could not guarantee their credibility.

The head of the organization, Miguel Bernad, said in a statement on Facebook that the activists had simply collected and handed over the posts to a judge, fulfilling their “civic duty”, and denied that the actions were politically motivated.

Sanchez, who last year secured another term at the head of a minority coalition government led by his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (ISWP), wrote a surprise letter to his countrymen yesterday saying he was taking five days off and would announce the decision whether he will remain in charge of the country on Monday.

He condemned the lawsuit against his wife, calling it “unprecedented defamation and harassment by the right and the far right.”

In his letter, Sanchez categorically denies the allegations against his wife. She herself has not made any public statements on the matter, according to Reuters.

The leader of Spain’s main opposition People’s Party (NP), Alberto Nunez Feijo, today accused Prime Minister Sanchez of putting on a “spectacle” in front of the world by threatening to resign after an investigation into his wife, Begoña Gomez.

The “vast majority” of Spaniards “watch with astonishment the latest spectacle served to us by Sánchez”, the leader of the NP told the media.

“A president worthy of our nation (of the government) does not subject it to international disgrace,” Feijoo added, accusing the Socialist leader of “launching an operation for political survival, trying to mobilize people on the basis of compassion, because otherwise he cannot to make them support his rule”.

Source BTA