PM's brother and ex-Badajoz leader reject influence in hiring trial, as ex-chief slams UCO ‘science fiction’ claims

David Sánchez denies any hand in hirings

Pedro Sánchez’s younger brother, David, took the stand at the Audiencia Provincial in Badajoz and replied only to his own lawyer’s questions. He stated flatly that he had “not intervened in the creation and awarding” of the coordinator post he came to hold in 2017, nor in the subsequent recruitment of his friend Luis Carrero. Explaining his working conditions, Sánchez told the court he used shared offices and that the so-called “Office of Performing Arts” was “not understood as an office with a window or a physical building.” The 2022 name change of his position, he claimed, reached him only after it had been carried out: “I did not request the name change nor use influence for it. It brought no change to my salary.” He described telling Carrero only that he had heard “rumours of a reinforcement in culture” and that two months later Carrero informed him the post had been filled.

Gallardo labels UCO report “science fiction”

Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who led the Diputación of Badajoz between 2015 and 2019 and later stood as the PSOE candidate for the Extremadura presidency, dismissed the testimony of Guardia Civil’s lead investigator.

Yesterday I attended a science fiction novel.

He said he had “never been involved in personnel matters” and insisted that in autumn 2016 he did not even know that Pedro Sánchez had a brother. Gallardo framed himself as a rival of Sánchez during the PSOE’s internal war, stressing he backed Susana Díaz and that his relationship with the future prime minister was distant. “I had no fluid relationship with him. He could not have spoken to me about his brother,” he said. According to Gallardo, he only learned of David’s candidacy when a cabinet aide told him at the last minute, to which he replied:

May the best win.

Culture chief defends process

Elisa Moriano, who was director of the Culture department in 2016–2017, told the court that the selection board asked candidates the “pertinent” questions based on their projects and that the most suitable person was chosen. She denied attending a late-2016 meeting with Gallardo and the then culture deputy Cristina Núñez to design the post. “I never met with the two of them together, much less to talk about creating a post,” she said. Moriano described her role as purely technical and insisted that any political decision rested with the full Diputación assembly.

The UCO’s accusation

Lieutenant colonel Antonio Balas, who testified a day earlier, told the court that Gallardo was the political superior who drove the creation of the job. He noted the post was approved by the Diputación in November 2016 but remained vacant until July of the following year.

The post isn’t filled until he gives the starting pistol for it to be activated in the second half of 2017.

Balas maintained that the gap between the creation and the hiring undermines claims of pressing need.

Timeline of key events