Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his wife Begona Gomez arrived at the San Sebastian Film Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, on September 26, 2024. — Reuters file

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez dismissed a judge's fresh probe for alleged misappropriation against his wife Begona Gomez on Tuesday, asserting that there was "nothing" to support the "false" accusations. The latest complaint broadens Juan Carlos Peinado's ongoing investigation against Gomez for alleged corruption and influence-peddling, adding pressure to Sanchez's minority left-wing government. Peinado accepted a complaint by Hazte Oir, an ultra-Catholic association with far-right ties that has previously taken legal action against Gomez, according to a Madrid court ruling dated Monday. Gomez was also summoned to appear in court on November 18.

Sanchez stated that all the lawsuits brought against his wife to date "come from the same far-right organizations who are falsely accusing" her. "Time will put things in their place and absolute calm, because where there is nothing, nothing can come from it," he told reporters in Mumbai at the end of a trip to India. Hazte Oir accused Gomez of malpractice and misappropriation in connection with software used at the Complutense University of Madrid where she worked. The complaint alleges Gomez registered as her own software created for a course at the university that was financed by other companies. It added that Gomez unduly wrote technical documents so that the university hired a tech consultancy service.

The main conservative opposition Popular Party demanded explanations from Sanchez as multiple corruption allegations swirl around his family and government. It was "as if this level of economic, political and moral corruption were something normal," its leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on X. Peinado began his initial probe in April following a complaint filed by anti-graft NGO Manos Limpias ("Clean Hands") which has links to the far right. They accused Gomez of using her husband's position as leverage in her professional life. Sanchez and his Socialist party have dismissed the accusations as a smear campaign by the conservative and far-right opposition against his fragile minority government.

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