BARCELONA, Spain — Spanish police searched the headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party on Wednesday as part of an investigation into possible financial wrongdoing linked to party member who allegedly tried to influence police and legal cases that could damage the party.
The raid on the office in central Madrid is another blow to the party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose Socialists have been hammered by a series of corruption scandals.
“We respect the justice system, we will collaborate with the courts and there is the commitment in the Socialist Party that if there are new episodes of improper behavior, we will act with the same firmness we always have,” Sanchez said in a news conference in Rome.
Sanchez, Spain’s leader since 2018, brushed off calling early elections, which will have to take place next year at the latest.
The Civil Guard told The Associated Press that the search was strictly limited to a probe led by National Court judge Santiago Pedraz into the possible wrongdoing of Socialist party member Leire Diez and others.
The case against Diez started in 2025 when audio recordings appeared in Spanish media of her apparent involvement in attempts to discredit a member of the Civil Guard’s anti-corruption unit. Further reports linked her to alleged attempts to influence the work of state prosecutors. The judge’s probe is targeted on seeing if she received payments to allegedly carry out these efforts.
The Socialist party said she was acting on her own. Diez, who has left the party, has denied wrongdoing.
Legal woes mount for Spain’s Socialists
A statement issued by the court on Wednesday said that judge Pedraz ordered the Civil Guard to “confiscate diverse documentation and electronic archives in an investigation of a ring designed to destabilize judicial processes that were affecting the ruling party.”
The judge said that in addition to Diez, he is now also probing the alleged involvement of former Socialist heavyweight Santos Cerdan -- who is already under investigation in a separate corruption case -- as well as a former member of the regional government of Andalusia, a police officer, a business owner and two lawyers. The judge is investigating them on suspicions of bribery, making false testimony, forging commercial documents, influence peddling, and corruption.
The searches add to a growing list of legal cases that are hounding Spain’s Socialists.
Last week a separate court said it was investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in connection with a government airline bailout. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Last year, both Cerdan and Jose Luis Abalos, transport minister under Sanchez, were placed under investigation on allegations they played a part in a kickback ring that started during the COVID-19 pandemic, which they have denied.
Sanchez says cases won’t knock his government off course
Sanchez’s wife and brother are also being probed over allegations of influence peddling, which both have denied.
Sanchez has called the cases against his family a “smear campaign.” But the corruption case against his former cohorts led him to ask the nation for “forgiveness.”
His minority government depends on the support of a junior coalition partner, which for now has stuck with it despite the judicial actions.
Sanchez, who has stood out on the international stage for his progressive stances that have earned the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, has not been directly linked to any of the scandals.
The search of his party’s offices came while Sanchez was in the Vatican for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who is set to visit Spain from June 6-12. The prime minister said he delayed his news conference so that he could be informed of the searches before speaking to reporters.
While acknowledging the “seriousness” of the events in Madrid, Sanchez insisted Wednesday that the cases of corruption “do nothing to stain the work of this government that, with progressive parties, is working for a social and economic transformation.”
Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press
