Show trial

The absurd case against Begoña Gómez, PM Pedro Sánchez's wife, lurched forward last week, when a judge charged her with embezzlement of public funds. The money in question paid the state salary of Gómez's personal assistant, Cristina Álvarez, who was appointed in 2018. Gómez is charged with having Álvarez perform duties related to her job as a director at Madrid's Complutense university, as well as to her responsibilities as the prime minister's wife. Both women have been summoned to testify before the judge in September.

I flirted with the idea of becoming a barrister in my late twenties, and completed several internships at some of London's leading criminal chambers. I still find it instructive to imagine how one could argue both sides of a case; and in this instance, it would be easy to combat the latest addition to Gómez's flimsy indictment (which also features corruption and influence peddling).

Let's say that Álvarez sometimes performed duties that furthered Gómez's business activities, rather than helped with her personal duties as Sánchez's spouse. Say, for example, that she had to rearrange, via email, one of Gómez's meetings at the university so that she could attend an event with her husband. Or perhaps Álvarez filed some university documents at the end of a busy day, because her boss had to rush off to a dinner at Moncloa. Are these examples of state or private work?

The point is, of course, that there's no meaningful difference - certainly not one substantial enough to prosecute on. Once someone is hired as someone else's personal assistant, any duties that make their employer's life run more smoothly are within their professional remit.

The case against Gómez seems to be an attempt to discredit Sánchez - although his own party is doing a good job of that. Politicians' family members are fair game in Spanish politics: Sánchez's brother David is also due to stand trial for corruption as Badajoz province's director of performing arts, a position which was reportedly created for him; and both the brother and romantic partner of Madrid's Conservative president Isabel Ayuso have been investigated for fraud (although all of these cases seem to rest on stronger evidence than that brought against Gómez). If you can't accuse your enemy directly of corruption, taint them by association - that's the tactic.

There's something wonderfully ironic about the fact that the new charge against Gómez is of misdirecting state resources. Arguably, the judge's decision to proceed with such a poorly substantiated case is a waste of public funds. And surely the salaries of personal assistants such as Álvarez could be better spent elsewhere? If prime ministers' spouses managed their own calendars, show trials like this could be avoided.