cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/9681930
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Zapatero, who governed Spain from 2004 to 2011, was placed under formal investigation last month for alleged influence peddling in connection with the bailout of small airline Plus Ultra in 2021. Plus Ultra received €53 million of public money after the Covid-19 pandemic paralyzed global travel.
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Sanchez vowed to clean up Spanish politics when he took power in 2018 after the main conservative Popular Party (PP) was convicted in its own graft affair. But a two-year-long investigation into his wife Begona Gomez for alleged influence peddling had already shaken the government, with a decision to send her to trial potentially coming in days. Verdicts are also due in separate corruption trials of Sanchez's former right-hand man Jose Luis Abalos and his brother David Sanchez.
Recent revelations about an ongoing police probe into a former Socialist activist suspected of leading a plot to sabotage investigations into Sanchez's entourage have piled further pressure on the government. Amid the relentless stream of negative headlines, the Socialists have suffered four regional election drubbings since late 2025, in a possible precursor to next year's national vote.
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Meanwhile, the president of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, links the Spanish government's stance on China in Brussels to the influence of Zapatero and Huawei.
In recent months, EU institutions have intensified debates on the need to correct trade imbalances with Beijing, especially in sectors considered strategic such as clean technologies, electric vehicles, telecommunications, or critical raw materials ... This strategy is particularly driven by countries like France, which have long called for a more forceful response to what they consider distorting trade practices and unequal access to markets.
“That Spain is the European exception with the company Huawei, we will someday know why. It is legitimate to wonder if this has to do with Zapatero's entrepreneurial activities,” stated the Popular leader, referring to former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
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The statements come at a particularly delicate time for the Chinese company [Huawei] within European institutions. Over the last few years, Brussels has progressively tightened its scrutiny of critical infrastructures and telecommunications networks, promoting control mechanisms to limit potential risks associated with suppliers considered high-risk by some member states.
In this context, the Spanish position has generated debate among various European political actors, especially among those governments that advocate for a more restrictive policy regarding investments and technologies from China.
[It is noteworthy that Zapatero has also been a leading figure and co-founder of the Gate Center, a Chinese lobbying group in Spain.]
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Some experts claim that Zapatero case puts Europe’s “elite capture” problem back in the spotlight.
“The political and systemic risk is evident,” [Beniamino Irdi, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and board member of Decode39] said. Russia and China seek to acquire influence and strategic leverage inside Europe through gradual, long-term efforts designed to shape political decision-making, weaken institutions and expand their influence.
Regardless of where the investigation ultimately leads, the episode is likely to intensify a debate that is already growing across Europe: whether democratic institutions are adequately prepared to confront sophisticated foreign influence campaigns operating below the threshold of traditional espionage or coercion.
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