Spain is in political turmoil.
A new corruption scandal has once again shaken the government in Madrid, with prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s party (PSOE) facing its worst crisis since he came to power in 2018.
High-ranking officials of Sánchez's PSOE have allegedly been involved in a massive corruption scheme involving irregular awarding of public contracts in exchange for kickbacks.
The so-called Operación Delorme (often called the Caso Koldo in Spain), launched by the Guardia Civil's elite Central Operative Unit (UCO) and coordinated with the anti-corruption prosecution office, investigates alleged manipulation of emergency procurement procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But what started as an investigation into irregular pandemic-era mask purchases has rapidly expanded into a broader political scandal, which is still far from over.
The probe has expanded well beyond public‑health procurement, even prompting a high-level investigation of potential misuse of EU funds led by the European public prosecutor's office (EPPO). The European anti-fraud body, Olaf, is also involved in the investigation.
The mask scheme turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg, as investigators have uncovered a sophisticated corruption scheme involving bid‑rigging for lucrative regional and national infrastructure contracts, money laundering, and coordinated political influence.
And the deeper the investigation goes, the more difficult it is for Sánchez to justify being unaware of what was happening.
Sánchez, who has so far tried to distance the party from the scandal by framing it as the isolated misconduct of a few individuals, has apologised to Spaniards and PSOE voters. But he has refused to resign or call for elections, as the centre-right political opponents (the PP party) and far-right Vox are demanding.
If elections were called, the latest estimates from May 2025 suggest that the PSOE would win 32 percent of the vote, while the PP would receive 29.3 percent.
However, it is clear that the ongoing investigation (and its eventual outcome) could significantly undermine the PSOE’s credibility and impact the results of the upcoming elections.
All this comes ahead of tough weeks in the international arena. First at the Nato summit in The Hague, where Spain has rejected Trump's demands to set a new five percent defence-spending target, and then at the European Council in Brussels.
At the heart of the corruption scandal are, so far, Koldo García (former close adviser to ex-transport and urban agenda minister José Luis Ábalos), Ábalos himself (who is now a solely MP), and Santos Cerdán (PSOE's secretary of organisation and effectively Sánchez's party's "number three").
It all started in early 2024, when Koldo García and his wife were arrested over an alleged corruption scheme involving pandemic-era mask purchases.
In García's home, over 30,000 photos, documents, and audio files were confiscated by police, including data recovered from cloud backups.
The relation between Sánchez and Ábalos, who was also PSOE's "number three" until 2021, has been special.
In 2021, Sánchez removed Ábalos as PSOE secretary of organisation and transport minister without much explanation, raising many questions that were left unanswered. But in the wake of the snap elections in 2023, Ábalos was rescued for the electoral lists.
In February 2024, when accusations against him were still unclear, he was suspended from membership and expelled from the parliamentary group. As a result, Ábalos went from being a very powerful fish within the PSOE to a lone deputy.
The three high-ranking socialist politicians are currently facing charges including influence peddling, corruption, embezzlement, and membership in a criminal organisation. All the suspects have denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation of the Guardia Civil's UCO not only points to several PSOE politicians, but also to five businessmen (not under investigation) for their alleged involvement in the rigging of public works contracts.
On top of this, Sánchez took five days to reflect in April 2024, when his wife, Begoña Gómez, came under scrutiny for alleged influence-peddling. Many saw the move as politically motivated.
This week, the European Parliament held a debate on the rule of law in Spain, during which the EU commissioner, Michael McGrath, urged Madrid to strengthen the independence of its prosecutor's office.
Under the current system, Spain's attorney‑general is appointed by the government, raising concerns in Brussels about the lack of independence and autonomy of the prosecution, as flagged in the European Commission's latest annual rule of law report.
The debate was triggered in part by a preliminary decision by Spain's Supreme Court to prosecute the government-appointed attorney-general over allegations he leaked confidential information to the media about a tax offence from the couple of a political opponent.
Yet, much of the debate in Strasbourg wasn't just about this episode. Instead, it revolved around the latest political scandals engulfing the Sánchez government: from allegations tied to the Delorme Operation, to questions about the Catalan amnesty law, judicial interference, and the integrity of its own party.
The centre-right opposition used the opportunity to attack Sánchez's policies and call for elections, the socialists tried to defend themselves and their S&D European party, while others talked about a European debate being hijacked for national interests.
In an email, seen by EUobserver and sent to all members of the S&D group ahead of the plenary debate, the head of the Spanish delegation of the S&D, Javier Moreno Sánchez (not related to Pedro Sánchez), defended the "immediate" response of the government.
"Once again, we have demonstrated that we are not all the same — and that the Socialist Party has zero tolerance for corruption, something the Partido Popular cannot claim," he said, referring to a massive corruption scandal known as the 'Gürtel case', which led to the successful vote of no confidence against Sánchez's predecessor, Mariano Rajoy (PP) in June 2018.
Back then, several senior PP members were found guilty of embezzlement.
"We are fully aware of the responsibility we hold — both in Spain and in Europe," Moreno Sánchez also said.
With scandals piling up and Europe watching closely, can Sánchez still hold on or is Spain on the verge of a political shake-up?
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Elena is EUobserver's editor-in-chief. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.
Elena is EUobserver's editor-in-chief. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.