Spanish police entered the Madrid headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party on Wednesday to demand documents as part of a corruption investigation into a former party member, judicial sources said.
The operation comes after former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was placed under formal investigation last week, in one of many corruption cases piling pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government.
READ MORE: Spain’s former PM under investigation for influence peddling
Agents from the UCO, a specialised unit of Spain’s Guardia Civil handling complex and sensitive investigations, went to the party’s headquarters on Wednesday to demand the documents, according to a judicial source, confirming a report by the El Confidencial newspaper.
The operation is linked to an inquiry into alleged irregularities within the SEPI state holding company involving former party member Leire Díez, the newspaper added.
READ ALSO: Leire Díez – The latest chapter in the corruption saga embroiling Spain’s PM
The head of the main opposition conservative People’s Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said Sánchez’s government “stinks” of corruption and renewed his call for early elections.
Sánchez was at the Vatican on Wednesday ahead of a visit by Pope Leo XIV to Spain next month and was due to hold a press conference later in the day, his first since Zapatero was placed under investigation.
The Zapatero affair is one of several cases of alleged corruption involving members of the prime minister’s inner circle.
His brother, David Sánchez, is scheduled to stand trial for influence peddling, while his wife, Begoña Gómez, is under investigation in a separate corruption case.
Sánchez has dismissed the cases against his family members as baseless and part of a right-wing “smear campaign”.
Sánchez’s former right-hand man, ex-transport minister José Luis Ábalos, is also awaiting a verdict in his own corruption trial, which heard closing arguments earlier in May.
Zapatero, a Sánchez ally who governed Spain from 2004 to 2011, is under investigation for alleged irregularities linked to the state-backed rescue of an airline.
