For José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, today marks a watershed. The former prime minister is appearing before Judge Calama as a suspect under investigation, becoming the first head of a Spanish government since the transition to democracy to appear in court over a corruption case.
The hearing, which starts today at 09:00 and will run until tomorrow, is intended to shed light on two strands at once. On the one hand, the public bailout of 53 million euros granted to the airline 'Plus Ultra'. On the other, the discovery of luxury jewellery during a search of his office in Ferraz, which has prompted the judge to open a separate line of inquiry because of its value, with the items provisionally valued at 1.3 million euros and their origin, the investigation notes, not accounted for.
The court order underpinning the case also refers to the company owned by the former prime minister’s daughters, What The Fav, which received up to 2 million euros for “consultancy” and layout services that may have been used to disguise the payment of alleged kickbacks. The investigating magistrate, who describes Zapatero as the leader of an “organised scheme”, will today hear the former prime minister’s explanations behind closed doors.
A ‘horribilis’ week for the government
Zapatero is not just a former prime minister in the dock; for years he has been one of the Socialist Party’s most valuable political assets. His appearances at rallies, end-of-campaign events and his close relationship with Pedro Sánchez since he arrived in La Moncloa in 2018 mean this case has been one of the hardest blows for the PSOE and for the government itself.
Although the former prime minister’s defence team, led by Víctor Moreno Catena, has already tried to limit the scope of the questioning by asking for the jewellery to be left out of the first session, the judge rejected the request, arguing there is no “real impairment of his right to a defence”.
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