If Pedro Sánchez thought 2026 was going to be a quieter year in Spanish politics, a Madrid court just had other ideas. According to Euronews, a Spanish court has ordered a corruption trial against Begoña Gómez, the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and has revoked her passport as part of the proceedings.
Yes, you read that right. The prime minister's wife no longer has a passport. That is not a metaphor for anything. That is just the situation in Spain right now.
What is actually going on here?
The case against Gómez is reportedly one of several corruption-related affairs that have been swirling around Sánchez's inner circle, including family members and former allies. Euronews reports that the cumulative weight of these scandals is putting serious strain on his already fragile minority coalition government.
For context, Sánchez leads a government that requires the support of a patchwork of smaller regional and left-wing parties to survive any confidence vote. That is not exactly a sturdy foundation when courtroom drama starts eating the news cycle for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Why the passport revocation matters
Passport revocations are typically used by courts to prevent defendants from leaving the country before trial. It is a standard legal precaution, but it is also the kind of headline that tends to follow politicians around like a bad smell at the worst possible time - and for Sánchez, the timing could hardly be worse.
Spanish opposition parties have repeatedly used the corruption cases linked to Sánchez's circle to hammer at his legitimacy as prime minister, demanding elections and calling his government a scandal-ridden house of cards. Whether or not those attacks land with voters is another question, but each new court development hands the opposition fresh ammunition.
The bigger picture
Spain is hardly the only European country where government leaders have found their personal and professional lives tangled up in legal proceedings. But the sheer number of cases reportedly circling the Sánchez administration - involving family members and former allies alike - is notable even by the turbulent standards of contemporary European politics.
Whether the trial and passport revocation against Gómez will actually threaten to bring down the government remains to be seen. Minority coalition governments in Spain have proven surprisingly resilient before. But resilience has its limits, and courts have a habit of not caring about your political calendar.
Sánchez, for his part, has previously survived political crises that analysts declared unsurvivable. He is something of a political cat with nine lives. The question is how many he has left.
Source: Euronews
