PSOE keeps Zapatero’s campaign role undecided amid legal investigations
Former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, now under investigation, remains a tentative figure in the PSOE’s upcoming election drive.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the first former head of government to be formally named as a suspect before the Audiencia Nacional, defended his innocence in two separate investigations concerning a 2021 airline subsidy and a cache of jewels discovered in his office. He pledged to provide documentation on the jewels within ten days, but only responded after a September request from judge Calama, claiming the pieces were a personal gift from the late Saudi king Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud during a 2007 official visit to Madrid.
No documentary proof of this claim has been presented. Despite the legal cloud, the PSOE’s top brass continues to back Zapatero’s political value, with President Pedro Sánchez stating he will count on him in the campaign and María Jesús Montero saying the party would welcome his participation, leaving the final call to Zapatero himself.
Why it matters
The PSOE’s election prospects hinge on whether a former leader under criminal probe will be allowed to campaign.
How this story developed
- Oct 6 Spanish Supreme Court Cancels Arrest Warrants for Catalan Leader Puigdemont and Advisors
- Oct 6 Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena cancelled the national arrest warrants for Puigdemont and his advisers.
- Oct 7 Supreme Court judge issued a provisional annulment of Puigdemont’s arrest warrant, pending a separate tribunal meeting on the full amnesty application.
- Oct 7 Luis José Sáenz de Tejada, a dismissed ex-judge, told a criminal associate that judge Beatriz Biedma should be dealt with, according to a Guardia Civil report.
- Oct 9 Vox has asked the court to add a homicide‑proposition charge to the lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators.
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