Spanish court convicts PM Sánchez's brother over unfair public job allocation

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A Spanish court on Tuesday ruled that officials had unfairly allocated a public job to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s brother — a decision that has heightened tensions between the judiciary and the head of government.

“The general interest, and not the particular interest of the future recipients of public employment positions, should govern their creation,” the judges overseeing the trial in the Badajoz Provincial Court wrote in their ruling, describing it as an “unethical practice.”

The court’s decision marks a new low in the prime minister’s contentious relationship with the country’s judiciary. Sánchez has for years alleged that he and his family are victims of “ lawfare ” — questionable legal proceedings that aim to harass and discredit political opponents — and accused conservative judges of “involving themselves in politics [and] doing immense damage to the justice system.”

The charges stem from David Sánchez’s 2017 appointment as coordinator of music conservatories in Badajoz, Extremadura.

In 2024, Manos Limpias — a group with links to the far right that Spain’s Supreme Court was accused of filing frivolous lawsuits to undermine the government — lodged a complaint alleging the post had been created for the prime minister’s younger brother, and that civil servants colluded to rig the public competition in his favor.

Sánchez has consistently denied the charges, and throughout the trial his defense argued that it was impossible to claim the post had been awarded in a show of favoritism because it was allocated years before his older brother became prime minister, and at a moment when he was isolated and powerless .

The process unfolded at a time when Sánchez had been ousted as secretary general of Spain’s Socialist Party and was considered politically dead. And the man alleged to have ordered the competition’s rigging — former provincial President Miguel Ángel Gallardo — testified that he had a poor relationship with Pedro Sánchez and had publicly backed his rival for the party’s leadership, making it all the more unlikely that he would favor his brother.

Although Spain’s Public Prosecutor’s Office called for the charges to be dropped , the provincial court brought the case to trial. In their verdict, which the justices recognized as being based solely on “circumstantial evidence,” the prime minister’s brother was found guilty of administrative misconduct and barred from holding public office for nine years.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the conviction was crafted by those whose “sole purpose is to bring down a government that they were unable to defeat in elections,” and said this period in Spanish politics would be remembered as one in which “the seams of our most essential institutions were stretched to their limits.”

While insisting the government would comply with the ruling, Socialist Party Parliamentary Spokesperson Patxi López characterized the legal proceedings as a “ witch hunt ” and said the conviction “reaffirms the triumph of the far-right’s strategy.”

Pedro Sánchez has publicly acknowledged that the legal pressure on his family has worn him down, and he briefly considered stepping down in 2024 after his wife, Begoña Gómez, was named in a separate criminal complaint filed by Manos Limpias. She is on track to stand trial on corruption and influence peddling charges.