Former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been named as a suspect in a corruption investigation linked to the €53 million state bailout of airline Plus Ultra, deepening the political crisis surrounding Spain’s ruling Socialist Party.
Spanish judges are examining whether political influence was used to secure the pandemic-era rescue package and whether parts of the operation involved money laundering and influence peddling. Zapatero denies any wrongdoing.
The case is politically explosive because Zapatero, who served as Spain’s prime minister from 2004 to 2011, would become the first former Spanish premier of the democratic era to face an investigation of this kind.
Although Zapatero stepped away from frontline politics after leaving office, he remains an influential figure inside the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and maintains close ties with current prime minister Pedro Sánchez.
He also built an international profile in recent years through political mediation efforts in Venezuela, where he maintained contacts with the government of Nicolás Maduro even as many Western governments imposed sanctions on Caracas.
The investigation comes at a difficult moment for Sánchez’ government, which is already under pressure from several corruption-related cases involving figures close to the prime minister.
VOX leader Santiago Abascal seized on the case to intensify pressure on the government, saying Zapatero’s indictment was “not an isolated event” but “another episode” linked to Sánchez’s administration.
Abascal accused Sánchez of being “the number one figure in all the corruption schemes” and renewed his call for a parliamentary no-confidence motion “to expose before the Spanish people the full extent of the mafia and the position of every deputy regarding it.”
Spain’s conservative opposition says the growing number of investigations surrounding Socialist figures points to a wider culture of political favouritism, while PSOE officials insist the cases are politically motivated.
The Plus Ultra bailout has been controversial since it was approved in 2021. Critics questioned why the financially struggling airline qualified for public rescue funds, while supporters argued the company was strategically important for Spain’s connections with Latin America.
