(Bloomberg) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declined to testify in a criminal inquiry that targets his wife’s business activities and is building pressure on his minority government.
Sanchez made use of his legal right to not testify against his wife when questioned by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado Tuesday, at the prime minister’s residence in Madrid, according to a government press officer. Peinado had decided to hear his testimony there rather in court.
Peinado is investigating Sanchez’s wife, Begona Gomez, under suspicion of influence peddling and corruption in relation to her job at two universities. Given her relationship to Sanchez, it’s “convenient, useful and pertinent” to question the premier, the judge said earlier this month.
The judicial investigation, opened in April, has added to a perception of Sanchez as a weak leader with little scope to govern. The Socialist prime minister leads a minority coalition administration and has struggled to pass legislation this year, unexpectedly losing two major votes in a splintered parliament.
Gomez has not been charged and the government says the allegations are groundless. In the Spanish legal system, an investigative judge runs a probe before deciding whether or not to send a case to a second phase, handled by a different judge, where suspects may be charged and face trial.
Spanish prime ministers have been summoned to testify in the past, including Sanchez’s predecessor Mariano Rajoy of the conservative People’s Party. However, past probes involved decisions taken by governments or parties, rather than family-related activities such as the ones currently being investigated.
Sanchez and the government have dismissed the inquiry as politically motivated and baseless, but haven’t publicly addressed the specific allegations, while Gomez hasn’t made any statements.
The judge opened the probe following a complaint based on press clippings that was filed by a pressure group whose leader has ties to the far right.
--With assistance from Thomas Gualtieri.
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