Sanchez under pressure over corruption probe

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faced growing pressure yesterday to call early elections, a day after police raided the headquarters of his Socialist Party around 12 p.m. on Wednesday as part of an investigation into allegations that party members secretly financed a smear campaign against judges involved in cases against the government and members of Sanchez's family.

Judge Santiago Pedraz of the National Court, who ordered the police operation, accused the party of keeping a de facto criminal organization on its payroll, according to court documents seen by The New York Times. The Socialist Party said it would cooperate with authorities and the judiciary, as did Sanchez, who added that key figures in the investigation were expelled from the party more than a year ago.

"What I can say to the Spanish citizens is full cooperation with the judicial system," the Spanish prime minister said.

The allegations have deepened an internal crisis for Sanchez, who has sought to distance himself from growing perceptions of corruption among his party and allies by taking a more prominent role on the international stage, the American newspaper writes.

Last week, Sanchez's political ally and former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was formally placed under investigation for influence peddling. Several of Sanchez's relatives and other former allies are on trial or under investigation for corruption, including his brother, who went on trial yesterday on charges that he obtained a job through political connections.

One of those defendants, Santos Serdan, a former senior Socialist Party official, is accused in the latest case, which led to a police raid on Wednesday, of masterminding a campaign to discredit judges and prosecutors.

Sanchez met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday. He called the pontiff a “moral compass in the fight against injustice” around the same time that the Spanish judiciary was accusing his party of corruption.

Although Sanchez has not been directly implicated in the case, public pressure is mounting. An editorial in the newspaper "Mundo" yesterday said that early elections are a "true democratic imperative", adding that the government has "neither political nor moral authority".

“All the corruption is Sanchez’s,” read the front page headline of the conservative newspaper ABC. Alberto Nunez Feijo, leader of Spain’s main conservative opposition party, mocked Sanchez for trying to dress himself in the clean robes of the popular pope. “If he wants to get closer to the pope, he should remember the seventh commandment,” Feijo said, “You shall not steal, and the eighth commandment: You shall not bear false witness.”