Spain’s Far‑Left Dictatorship Has Become a Reality | The American Spectator

Rome fell, above all, because of internal corruption. The Chinese Empire collapsed from abuse of power. The Byzantine Empire disintegrated amid the sale of military and ecclesiastical offices. Nero and Caligula squandered their legitimacy in orgies. John Profumo brought down Harold Macmillan’s government by sleeping with a Soviet spy. And the Tang dynasty crumbled under the sway of its concubines. Spain’s current government seems determined to sample all of those vices at once. If it has not yet fallen, that is only thanks to Pedro Sánchez’s knack for mischief and his ability to bend every lever of modern democracy — the press, the courts, the Constitution, his own word — to his will.

Mr. Sánchez is now finishing work on a law that would impose fines of up to €2.5 million on journalists who disclose so‑called “high secrets.” Who will decide what qualifies as a “high secret”? The government. It is yet another serious attempt to muzzle a press that has been exposing fresh corruption cases in his circle almost daily. (RELATED: Spanish Socialist Is a Problem for NATO)

The web of schemes could hardly be murkier or more lurid. Spain is transfixed by the clandestine recordings of politicians, businessmen, and journalists, made in gay saunas owned by the prime minister’s father‑in‑law.

From the 1990s through the pandemic, Mr. Sánchez’s father‑in‑law made a fortune from brothels in Spain. To avoid controversy, he transferred ownership of those businesses when Mr. Sánchez began his political career in the Socialist Party, although he continued to manage them from the shadows. One of them, a well‑known gay sauna in central Madrid that offered prostitution services, was the scene of secret video and audio recordings of the politicians, journalists, and celebrities who figured among its clients.

Several people implicated in the government’s corruption scandals have hinted in recent months that the sauna recordings have been used to blackmail politicians, businessmen, and judges to advance Mr. Sánchez’s political career. Now we also know of an intelligence report received by Mariano Rajoy’s government in 2014 that said: “Sánchez used recordings from the Adán sauna of two senior Socialist officials with the initials J.B. to climb the ladder.” In other words, he allegedly used such recordings not only against outsiders but also against members of his own party. (RELATED: Imagine if Biden Did What Spanish Prime Minister Has Done)

Mr. Sánchez’s government is a powder keg. His family, his party and his administration are besieged by suspicions of corruption — illegal commissions, influence peddling, the award of public contracts to businessmen-friends, prostitutes allegedly paid with public funds, apartments financed with money of dubious origin from a gay brothel, a rigged party primary, and attempts to blackmail businessmen to obtain information to discredit judges investigating these cases.

We speak of “suspicions” because the presumption of innocence obliges us, but Spaniards have heard recordings that, in most cases, leave little to the imagination. It is hard to explain to foreigners how Pedro Sánchez has not yet resigned.

The prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, has been indicted on charges of influence peddling, corruption in business, practicing a profession without the proper qualifications, and misappropriation. His brother, David Sánchez, faces trial on five counts related to a post he allegedly obtained irregularly in the public administration.

José Luis Ábalos, a former minister, close friend, and key ally in Mr. Sánchez’s rise within the Socialist Party, has been indicted on charges of criminal organization, bribery, influence peddling, and embezzlement. Santos Cerdán, the party’s organization secretary and another crucial ally — who negotiated the deals with far‑left and nationalist parties that keep Mr. Sánchez in the Moncloa Palace — is in prison under investigation for bribery, criminal organization, and influence peddling.

Almost every day, Spanish television features prostitutes recounting their experiences with Socialist leaders while investigators look into how Messrs. Ábalos and Cerdán installed many of them in public‑sector jobs — posts that in some cases they did not even attend. Speculation is unnecessary: the former driver of Pedro Sánchez and the personal bodyguard of José Luis Ábalos have everything recorded, and the tapes are in the judge’s hands. There are also numerous recordings by the Guardia Civil, which has been tracing these corruption cases for years.

Mr. Sánchez, a master of sleight of hand, seeks to survive by insisting that only two bad apples surround him and that the cases against his brother and his wife are part of a witch hunt orchestrated by far‑right judges. The plot line may be original, but the recordings exist, as do the alleged irregularities involving his brother and his wife, and the testimony of the businessmen who benefited and have chosen to confess and cooperate with the Guardia Civil.

On Nov. 10, 2023, I published an article in The American Spectator headlined “A New Far‑Left Dictatorship Is Coming to Europe.” It infuriated Mr. Sánchez’s government because it went viral and was picked up by scores of Spanish and European newspapers. The government’s anger has had some unpleasant consequences for me, but I would publish it again. (READ MORE: A New Far-Left Dictatorship Is Coming to Europe)

The astonishing thing is that none of the issues I denounced then — the concessions to separatists who detest Spain, the coalition with communist friends of Nicolás Maduro’s, or the pact with the political heirs of the terrorist group ETA — constitutes even 1 percent of the reasons Mr. Sánchez ought to go home today. The article proved eerily prophetic. The dictatorship at the heart of Europe has now moved beyond its embryonic stage, and Brussels, if it wishes to be useful for once, ought to take up the matter.

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