On Thursday, EPP Secretary General Dolors Montserrat formally requested that the Commission examine whether the Spanish government breached EU principles of good governance, transparency, and impartiality, as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The demand comes in the wake of leaked WhatsApp messages published by El Mundo, allegedly showing Sánchez discussing the bailout with former ministers just days after a meeting between the airline chairman’s son, Javier Hidalgo, and the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez – currently under investigation for corruption and influence peddling.
Amid ongoing corruption investigations involving Socialist-linked officials, Montserrat concluded the government had violated the rights to good administration, impartiality and transparency.
“These revelations raise serious questions,” Montserrat said in a statement. “We demand transparency and accountability so that no government can use public funds as a tool to serve its own interests.”
Wider European scandal?
One of the leaked conversations involves Nadia Calviño, Spain’s former economy minister and now president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), allegedly discussing the bailout’s execution: a detail Montserrat said gives the scandal wider European implications.
“The involvement of Calviño, now leading the EIB, gives this affair a European dimension and undermines trust in our institutions,” she added.
The controversy centers on the Spanish government’s 2020 decision to approve a €475 million rescue package for Air Europa, which was on the brink of collapse as the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a standstill.
The leaked messages appear to show Sánchez debating the merits of the deal, even forwarding a message from a “close friend” lobbying in favor of the bailout to then-Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos – who is now facing allegations in a separate €50 million corruption scandal.
2020 bailout back in spotlight
“I believe that Air Europa needs to be rescued, not put in the hands of Iberia (a subsidiary of the British company IAG),” Sánchez allegedly wrote. “In any case, it is an operation that we must meditate and see how to approach it.”
The scandal has dominated Spanish headlines, with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the Popular Party calling for early elections.
So far, government officials have defended the legality of the transaction.
“There is no indication that any irregularity has been committed with respect to Air Europa. All the technical reports point to the good management that was done,” First Vice President María Jesús Montero told Congress on Wednesday.
(aw)