Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez under attack from all sides after graft shock
Santos Cerdán was a powerful figure in Sánchez's Socialist Party. As organizational secretary, he was in charge of the day-to-day running of the party - a role he took on after his predecessor, José Luis Ábalos, another former Sánchez aide, was charged with organized crime, bribery and influence peddling last year.
When Cerdán was implicated in the same case in a police report released on June 12, Sánchez was in a state of shock, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters. On Monday, Cerdán was arrested.
The shock has reverberated throughout the Socialist Party and the fragile coalition government that Sánchez heads. Senior Socialist Party officials told Bloomberg News that there is a sense of betrayal and anger within the party's ranks.
With Sánchez facing the biggest challenge to his position since becoming prime minister in 2018, the leadership needs to take decisive action to restore trust with members and the electorate, the officials said.
"We are disappointed, it's a widespread feeling in the party," Cristina Narbona, president of the Socialist Party and a former minister, told Bloomberg News. "Not only our secretary-general trusted them," she said, referring to Sánchez. "We all did."
Cerdán, who has resigned from his roles in the Socialist Party and in parliament, denied the charges in a statement, saying that he has "never committed any illegal act nor have I been an accomplice of any."
Sánchez has denied any knowledge of the alleged crimes, and said that he acted swiftly to expel his senior advisers as soon as he was made aware of police reports. A spokesperson for the prime minister told Bloomberg News that Sánchez "found it hard to stop believing in Cerdan's innocence. He believed him up until the last minute. He had to personally read the police report to realize the disappointment and terrible reality."
The corruption investigation began in 2022 when the opposition People's Party filed a series of reports with prosecutors over the issuance of public contracts during the Covid pandemic. Most were dismissed, but one, alleging that staff at the transport ministry had taken payments from private companies in exchange for public contracts for masks, caught the attention of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office.
The investigation initially focused on a senior advisor at the department, Koldo Garcia, who was arrested in February 2024, but has since expanded. In November, the supreme court opened a case against Ábalos, who was transport minister from 2018 until 2021.
The allegations are particularly damaging for Sánchez, who came to power in 2018 on a platform of integrity in public life. He became prime minister after a no-confidence motion in parliament - sparked by another corruption case - ousted the conservative People's Party leader Mariano Rajoy. It was Ábalos who proposed the no-confidence motion on behalf of the Socialist Party.
Alongside the police reports, audio recordings have circulated in the Spanish media that appear to show Garcia and Ábalos using sexist language and referring to sex workers as merchandise. Sánchez's party calls itself feminist, and has been vocal about equal rights and pay, access to abortion, and the need to tackle violence against women.
The apparent hypocrisy has angered some in the Socialist Party. "There is a growing uncertainty among thousands and thousands of socialists who want to know where this will end up," Emiliano Garcia Page, a Socialist Party politician, president of the region of Castile-La Mancha - and a regular critic of Sánchez, said. "The problem is what to stand for. We've defended all those we now call shameless."
Opposition parties have demanded new elections, but they do not have enough votes for a motion of no-confidence.
The coalition government that Sánchez leads is fractious, and has struggled to pass any legislation. No budget has been approved since late 2022. The corruption allegations have increased tensions. "We're angry," Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz, from Sumar, a junior coalition member, said in a press conference on Tuesday.
"We've asked them to rise to the occasion but it doesn't seem that the Socialist Party has become aware of the seriousness and urgency of the moment," Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, from Sumar, told reporters after meeting with Socialist cabinet members on Wednesday.
Rebecca Torró, a junior minister has been named as Cerdán's replacement. Sánchez is due to address a meeting of the party's federal committee, a key decision-making body, on Saturday, where he is expected to announce further changes to Socialist Party's executive leadership, as well as new internal anti-corruption controls.
Sánchez has said he intends to lead the Socialist Party into general elections, due to be held in 2027. Despite the sense of crisis in the party, it is unlikely that there will be a meaningful challenge to the prime minister's leadership, according to party figures, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters.
The reluctance is partly because bringing down the government would open the door to a government led by the People's Party, in coalition with the far-right Vox.
Both Vox and the PP have promised to take a tougher stance on migration, to reform or repeal laws targeting violence against women, and to take a hard line on regional separatist movements, which have supported Sánchez. At the last election, the two parties combined came four short seats of a majority.
Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NATO declaration leaves wiggle room for 5 percent spending target
NATO leaders on Wednesday agreed to a major defense spending increase while leaving room for some alliance countries, including Spain, Belgium and Slovakia, to not hit the new spending goals thanks to very particular wording. 'Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements as well as defense-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations,' the 32 leaders of the alliance said in a statement that pointedly did not specify 'all allies' had committed to doing so. President Trump since his first term has pressured NATO countries to commit more of their annual GDP to military spending as the United States looks to shift its attention from security priorities in Europe to the Indo-Pacific and Middle East. NATO's biggest-spending member, Washington since early this year has insisted alliance countries must up their defense dollars from the 2 percent goal set in 2014 to the ambitious 5 percent. But the goal seemed to be a stretch given that nine of the 32 NATO member countries have yet to reach the earlier 2 percent goal. With vague diplomatic language, however, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has claimed he delivered on Trump's spending demands. 'For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden of that commitment. And that changes today,' Rutte said at the end of a meeting of NATO leaders Wednesday. 'President Trump, dear Donald, you made this change possible. Your leadership on this has already produced $1 trillion in extra spending from European allies since 2016. And the decisions today will produce trillions more for our common defense to make us stronger and fairer by equalizing spending between America and America's allies,' Rutte added. To hit the 5 percent goal – which countries have until 2035 to reach – allies agreed to split the spending among different buckets to easier reach targets. Now, 3.5 percent of the GDP dollars will go to 'core defense spending,' such as weapons and military equipment, while 1.5 percent will fund defense-adjacent spending – including improving a country's road or port infrastructure to better deploy forces or investing in cyber defense. A review of spending is set for 2029 to monitor progress and reassess Russia's security threat, given its ongoing war in Ukraine and overt threats to alliance members should they interfere in the conflict. But several countries have made clear they will not be meeting the new targets as they are pressed by economic challenges – issues that could be made worse by Trump's global tariffs. Among the most vocal of those countries is Spain, which before the NATO summit officially announced that it cannot meet the 'unreasonable' goal by 2035. 'Not all allies are bound to the 5 percent target,' according to a statement from the Spanish government ahead of the summit. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez put it more bluntly when he said 'we're not going to do it,' saying instead that Madrid would spend 2.1 percent of its GDP – meeting NATO's new capability targets – but 'no more, no less.' According to alliance figures from June 2024, Spain now spends just under 1.3 percent of its GDP on defense. Spain's stance has drawn the ire of Trump, who on Wednesday falsely claimed it was 'the only country that won't pay the full up,' and threatened it with harsh trade deals to make up the difference. 'I think Spain's terrible what they've done. They want to stay at 2 percent, I think it's terrible,' Trump said during a press conference at the conclusion of the summit. 'They're doing very well. The economy is very well. And that economy could be blown right out of the water with something bad happening.' He later added that he would negotiate directly with Spain on a trade deal, saying: 'We're going to make them pay twice as much. And I'm actually serious about that. . . . They want a little bit of a free ride, but they'll have to pay it back to us on trade, because I'm not going to let that happen. It's unfair. . . . They'll pay more money this way.' But other countries have also signaled they will not reach the 5 percent goal, including Slovakia, which said it has the right to set its own defense spending. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday said his country 'has other priorities in the coming years than armament,' and 'is capable of meeting NATO's requirements even without a substantial increase in defense spending,' according to a post to X. Belgium also has followed suit, with its prime minister, Bart De Wever, saying Wednesday that 'if the interpretation of Spain is correct, anybody can interpret the text in the same way,' and that his country is 'almost in the same situation' as Spain. Weaver did allow that Belgium is 'planning to do more' than the current 1.3 percent of its GDP spent on defense. In addition, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden did not fully commit to the aim of 5 percent, saying his country's goal 'is to continue to increase our collective effort in the years to come.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Murder charge filed 16 years after newborn was found dead in Bay Area dumpster
A Colorado woman has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of a newborn girl found abandoned in a Union City dumpster 16 years ago, police announced this week. The infant was discovered on May 18, 2009, behind the Parkside Apartments by a man searching for recyclables. The baby still had her umbilical cord attached and was found among bloodied pantyhose and a Costco receipt. Officers named her Matea Esperanza — a name meaning 'Gift from God' in Hebrew and 'Hope' in Spanish. 'This case touched so many people in our department,' Detective Steven Mendez said at the time. 'We were flabbergasted. There is a fire station a few blocks away where the baby could have been safely surrendered. Our station is half a mile away. It's tragic all the way around.' For years, the case remained unsolved. But with recent advances in DNA technology, Union City detectives were able to reanalyze evidence collected in 2009, ultimately identifying Angela Onduto, 46, of Denver as a suspect. Police said the suspect, also known as Angela Anderson, had previously been considered a person of interest early in the investigation. In May, around what would have been Matea's 16th birthday, detectives traveled to Denver and, in coordination with local law enforcement, arrested Onduto. In a probable cause statement obtained by the Bay Area News Group, Union City Detective Dominic Ayala wrote that Onduto admitted to killing the baby. An autoposy revealed the cause of death was drowning. 'Angela detailed how she intentionally murdered (Matea) after giving birth at home in 2009,' Ayala wrote. 'Angela expressed no remorse, and said she knew while pregnant she had no intention of keeping the baby. She admitted to discarding Baby Jane Doe in the dumpster. She denied diagnosis with any psychiatric conditions and/or drug use at the time of the incident.' Although Onduto was initially taken into custody, charges were withheld pending further forensic analysis and a detailed review of the coroner's findings. This week, after that review, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office formally filed a murder charge under California Penal Code 187. Onduto was rearrested by Denver police Wednesday and awaits extradition to California. In 2017, the Union City Police Officers Association purchased a permanent grave marker for her at Chapel of the Chimes in Hayward.
Axios
6 hours ago
- Axios
CIA agent came across Oswald before JFK assassination, newly released document reveals
For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an agent specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas assassination. Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning agent George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying. The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler." Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case agent name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate. For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting. The bottom line: "The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, an author and expert on the assassination. "This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald." The information comes to light as part of President Trump's order that the government meet its obligations to disclose all documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992. Little was known of Joannides' involvement in the case until disclosures in 1998 under the records act. New disclosures of previously hidden records keep adding slices of information to the story. Zoom in: Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials. On Aug. 9, 1963, more than three months before Nov. 22 assassination, four DRE operatives got into a scuffle with Oswald in New Orleans when he was passing out pro-Castro "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" pamphlets. The subsequent court hearing was covered by local news media. On Aug. 21 , 1963, Oswald debated DRE activists on local TV, providing more media attention to him as a communist. After the assassination, DRE's newsletter identified Oswald as a pro-Castro communist, and the Miami Herald and Washington Post covered the story. A year before Oswald became known as pro-Castro, the Pentagon formulated a plan called Operation Northwoods to stage a false-flag attack in the United States, blame Cuba and then attack it. Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE. All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE. That includes the agency's interactions with the Warren Commission (1964), the Church Committee (1975), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1977-78) and the Assassination Review Board (until 1998). The intrigue: Joannides didn't just have knowledge of Oswald before the assassination — afterward he played a central role in deceiving the House Select Committee on Assassinations. At the time, the CIA appointed Joannides to be its liaison with the committee. But he and the agency hid the fact that he was involved with DRE and therefore the Kennedy case, slow-walked the CIA's production of records, and lied. The committee's chief counsel, Robert Blakey, testified in 2014 that he asked Joannides about "Howard" and DRE, and that "Joannides assured me that they could find no record of any such officer assigned to DRE, but that he would keep looking," Blakey said. A former committee investigator, Dan Hardway, testified before a House Oversight committee last month that Joannides was running a "covert operation" to undermine the congressional probe into the assassination. Two years after stonewalling the committee, Joannides was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal by the CIA in 1981. He died in 1990. What they're saying: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican overseeing the House committee examining the newly released JFK documents, said Joannides was "1,000 percent" involved in a CIA coverup. Morley and some others who've written extensively about Kennedy's assassination believe rogue CIA agents might have been involved in the killing, but Morley's not ready to say Joannides was one of them. Others, such as author Gerald Posner, believe Oswald was the lone gunman. But all are in agreement that the CIA acted in bad faith after Kennedy was killed. "It's vintage CIA. They never provide transparency. They don't tell the truth. They obscure. They obfuscate. And when the documents come out, they look bad," Posner said.
