MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday refused to answer a question from a judge investigating his wife’s alleged influence-peddling, a case that has put pressure on his fragile minority government.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is leading the preliminary investigation, went to Sanchez’s official residence to question the Socialist prime minister as a witness, but he invoked his right to remain silent, lawyers who attended the hearing told reporters.
Under Spanish law, it is possible to refuse to answer questions in a case involving close family members, including spouses.
“The hearing lasted exactly two minutes,” Antonio Camacho, the lawyer for Sanchez’s wife Begona Gomez, told reporters outside the residence, adding that Sanchez was “absolutely calm.”
Gomez also invoked her right to remain silent when questioned by a judge earlier this month.
She has not spoken publicly about the case, but Sanchez has denied any wrongdoing by his wife and dismissed the allegations as part of a right-wing smear campaign against his left-wing government.
The case sparked bitterness and the main opposition conservative People’s Party (PP) called on Sanchez to resign. “Sanchez did not want to testify before the courts, but he will answer to the Spanish people,” PP chief Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on the X social network shortly after the hearing ended.
