Spain's socialist PM Pedro Sanchez insists he will NOT quit despite wife's corruption scandal after she was accused of 'receiving favours from airline rescued with £400m bailout'

Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared this morning that he will not quit as the country's leader after taking five days off to 'reflect on his future' amid a corruption probe into his wife.

Sanchez made the announcement after a court said it would investigate his wife, Begona Gomez, for influence peddling and business corruption, allegations Sanchez said were false and orchestrated by his right-wing opponents.

Far-right linked anti-corruption group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) accused Gomez of receiving favours from an airline which the government later bailed out with a £400million loan, Spanish media has reported.

The crisis erupted when an online newspaper said investigators had opened a preliminary probe into Gomez, prompting the right-wing opposition Popular Party, which has gone after Sanchez for months about his wife, to demand answers.

Sanchez's bombshell response switched the focus onto toxicity in Spanish politics targeting politicians' families, and saw his supporters turn out in huge demonstrations over the weekend calling for him to stay.

Spain has waited with bated breath for his decision, and today the centre-left PM said he would stay in post, using his speech to slam what he described as 'spurious' allegations and a media 'smear campaign'.

Spain 's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared this morning that he will not quit as the country's leader

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez giving a statement at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid to the press to communicate his decision to remain in post

Sanchez made the announcement five days after a court said it would investigate his wife, Begona Gomez

'I have decided to go on, if possible even stronger as prime minister. This is not business as usual, things are going to be different,' he said in a national broadcast. 

Sanchez, who has been in office since 2018, said today that his decision to stay was 'decisively influenced' by widespread expressions of support over the weekend.

Thousands of supporters massed outside the headquarters of his Socialist party in Madrid chanting: 'Pedro, stay!' and condemning criticism of his wife.

As news emerged that Gomez was being investigated on Wednesday, Sanchez wrote a four-page letter to the Spanish public, posted on X, in which he said he would consider tendering his resignation.

He said that attacks on his wife had 'crossed the line of respect of a prime minister's family life, with an attack on his personal life' and voiced frustration at his 'powerlessness' to protect her from attacks.

'I need to stop and think whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour,' he said.

Speaking today, he denied the move was a 'political calculation', and said he needed 'to stop and reflect' on the growing polarisation within politics which he said was increasingly being driven by 'deliberate disinformation'.

Spain's anti-corruption pressure group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) head Miguel Bernad surrounded by media leaves Madrid's Court on April 29, 2024

'For too long we've let this filth corrupt our political and public life with toxic methods that were unimaginable just a few years ago... Do we really want this for Spain?' he asked.

'I have acted out of a clear conviction: either we say 'enough is enough' or this degradation of public life will define our future and condemn us as a country.'

Sanchez previously said the move targeting his wife is part of a campaign of 'harassment' against them being waged by 'media heavily influenced by the right and far right' and backed by the right-wing opposition.

The public prosecutor's office on Thursday asked that the investigation be closed.

The court opened its investigation into Sanchez's wife in response to a complaint by anti-corruption pressure group Manos Limpias, whose leader is linked to the far right.

The group, which has presented a litany of unsuccessful lawsuits against politicians in the past, said in a statement late on Wednesday that it had based its complaint on media reports and could not vouch for their veracity.

While the court did not give details of the case, online news site El Confidencial said it was related to her ties to several private companies that received government funding or won public contracts.

Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported that Gomez had received favours from airline Air Europa and its Mallorca-based holding company Globalia during her time as director of the African research centre at Madrid's IE business school.

Last month, Spain's conflict of interests watchdog through out a complaint by the opposition People's Party which claimed that there was a link between a government bailout of Air Europa and the 'economic and professional ties' of the prime minister's wife.

People march to show support for Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in Madrid, Spain, April 28

Sanchez and Gomez first met at a party and have been married since 2006. They have two daughters together, Ainhoa, born in 2005, and Carlota, in 2007.

Gomez has been described as the prime minister's 'Achilles' heel', due to her being 'the only person who has been by his side throughout his political and life journey,' national paper El Pais reported.

It added that 'his wife has been part of all the decisions that have marked his career'. 

Sanchez, an expert in political survival who has made a career out of taking political gambles, suspended all his public duties and retreated into silence.

Spanish politics was thrown into turmoil by the prospect of the PM standing down, potentially sparking another fractious parliamentary vote to choose a new prime minister or even a fourth general election in five years.

But after meeting with King Felipe VI this morning - a step that would have been necessary should he have decided to resign - Sanchez announced that he had informed the monarch of his decision to stay on.

Sanchez has been vilified by right-wing opponents and media because his minority government relies on the support of the hard-left and Catalan and Basque separatist parties to pass laws.

They have been especially angered by his decision to grant an amnesty to hundreds of Catalan separatists facing legal action over their roles in the northeastern region's failed push for independence in 2017.

Supporters gather at a demonstration organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in support of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on April 27, 2024

That amnesty, in exchange for the support of Catalan separatist parties, still needs final approval in parliament.

The opposition has since Wednesday mocked Sanchez's decision to withdraw from his public duties for a few days, dismissing it as an attempt to rally his supporters.

'A head of government can't make a show of himself like a teenager and have everyone running after him, begging him not to leave and not to get angry,' jeered Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the right-wing opposition Popular Party, on Thursday.

Sanchez, he said, had subjected Spain to 'international shame'.

Before he retreated from public duties for several days, Sanchez had been due to launch his party's campaign on Thursday for the May 12 Catalonia regional elections in which his Socialists are hoping to oust the pro-independence forces from power.