Zapatero’s court defiance backfires: judge charges his secretary and daughters, PSOE discusses breaking ties

The court appearance

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became the first former Spanish prime minister to sit before a judge as a suspect on Wednesday, June 18. He refused to answer any questions from the Anti‑Corruption Prosecutor and instead filed a one‑paragraph document consenting to a search of his assets and shareholdings abroad. Legal experts consulted by 20Minutos described the gesture as purely symbolic, since a judge does not require an investigated person’s consent for such inquiries. Zapatero, however, insisted his secretary Gertrudis Alcázar had merely executed his instructions, calling her “an excellent person and an excellent worker who always acted according to my directions.”

“I could have just put ‘consulting’.”

When shown intercepted messages in which Alcázar asked co‑defendants how to word invoices and what concepts to include, Zapatero downplayed the exchanges, saying she was only trying to be specific.

Widening investigation

Judge José Luis Calama of Spain’s Audiencia Nacional was not convinced. The very next day, Thursday June 19, he charged Alcázar and Zapatero’s two daughters as participants in the alleged criminal organization that the former leader is accused of directing. Calama described Alcázar as a “pieza esencial” (essential piece) and the “nodo central de comunicación y gestión documental” (central node of communication and document management) because she handled Zapatero’s email and all the invoicing for the consultancy work he performed for his friend Julio Martínez Martínez’s company, Análisis Relevante.

“This reveals the absence of a real underlying service… the existence of a stable and repeated modus operandi.”

The judge pointed to evidence that Alcázar repeatedly sought instructions on how many invoices to issue, for what concepts, and in what amounts. Investigators suspect the invoices were used to channel influence‑peddling commissions linked to the 53‑million‑euro government rescue of airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic.

Political repercussions

Inside the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE), alarm has mounted since the declaration. Sources quoted by ABC say the procedure “is going to be a very long calvary” and that a faction is now openly debating a gradual “uncoupling” from the former prime minister to protect the party ahead of a critical electoral cycle. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously instructed his team to defend “the good name of Zapatero,” but the judicial escalation is testing that loyalty. Party officials recall the damaging late‑stage disassociation from former organizing secretary Santos Cerdán and fear a repeat if they wait too long.

The jewelry and transparency

Parallel to the Plus Ultra case, Zapatero faces separate charges of tax fraud and smuggling after police discovered jewels valued at more than one million euros in a safe in his office on Madrid’s Calle Ferraz. Reports suggest the jewels may date to a 2007 gift from Saudi Arabia, when such gifts were not illegal to retain. Pedro Sánchez, speaking from Brussels, defended his predecessor by noting that all presidents have received presents and that “the Spain of 2007 is not the Spain of 2026.” Meanwhile, El Confidencial revealed that the government’s latest open‑government plan excludes any obligation to make public the gifts received by the sitting prime minister.

“All presidents have received gifts, some, believe me, I don’t even know which ones…”