Related cases

Spain's politicians are officially on holiday until September - but it must be hard to switch off, especially for Pedro Sánchez. On June 25, shortly before the parliamentary recess began, congress sent the prime minister off into the sweltering summer with something to think about: a non-binding motion, passed by 177 votes to 171, calling for his resignation. One holiday-spoiling development for Sánchez this week appears to reinforce the opposition's claim that he runs a political and personal “mafia” that must be dismantled.

That said, it's hard to feel strongly either way about the ruling against David Sánchez, the prime minister's brother. One needn't point to David's conviction to support the case for a snap-election - nor, for that matter, to the ludicrous allegations against Sánchez's wife. The Koldo scandal is enough by itself to justify that demand, just as Gürtel warranted Mariano Rajoy's forced departure in 2018. One could add that Junts per Catalunya's backing of June's no-confidence resolution shows that Sánchez has hardly any support outside of his own coalition, and is now effectively unable to govern.

The tribunal in David's case (unintentionally) summed up all the reasons why his brother should go. David's job as a director of music schools in the Badajoz administration almost a decade ago, it decided, had been maintained “in the particular interest of its assignee and not in the general interest”. The same can be said about Sánchez's premiership.

The self-interested nature of Sánchez's manoeuvrings was particularly evident in late 2023, when he granted amnesties for several imprisoned Catalan separatists. Nevertheless, he seems to have been vindicated in doing so. This week, the EU's top court ruled that those amnesties, though deeply unpopular within Spain, did not violate European law. The court found that they hadn't compromised the bloc's legal or financial integrity, nor undermined its 2017 directive on terrorism.

Perhaps not, but Sánchez didn't grant the amnesties on principle. When nine leading secessionists were handed prison sentences of up to thirteen years in 2019, did the Socialist leader rail against the injustice? Did he protest at what seemed to be further proof of the politicisation of the Spanish judiciary? Not quite. Instead, Sánchez promised to comply with the Supreme Court's decision, which he described as “the conclusion of an exemplary legal process”.

The Sánchez brothers have more in common than their employment histories might suggest. David enjoyed a cushy administrative role created especially for him, designed with his passion for music in mind. Pedro, whose great love is power, has also set himself up in a comfy bespoke position, which has little to do with the public interest and a lot to do with his own. The key difference is that his job happens to be the most powerful in the country.

Read more Euro Zone columns by Mark Nayler.