MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was reelected as secretary-general of his Socialist Party over the weekend despite corruption probes besetting his inner circle.
One of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, Sánchez has displayed adroit negotiating skills to stay in power since 2018, when he led Spain's only successful no-confidence motion against his conservative predecessor. Last year he defied polls to win reelection by stitching together a fragile coalition and earning another term through 2027.
But the 52-year-old Sánchez, known abroad for his dashing looks and English fluency, is being corralled by a series of legal cases — all still in the investigative phase — that have focused on a former member of his Cabinet as well as his wife and, most recently, his brother.
Here's a look at the judicial onslaught that Sánchez and his party say is baseless and part of a right-wing “smear campaign."
Sánchez stunned Spain last April when he said he was taking five days from his public agenda to consider his political future after his wife, Begoña Gómez, had been placed under investigation by a Spanish judge.
He eventually announced he would stay in power and launch an effort to tackle what he called fake news that is “mudding” Spanish politics.
The judge is probing allegations of influence peddling and corruption by Gómez. The allegations were made by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a small group whose leader has links to the far-right. The group calls itself a union and has often tried to litigate against elected officials, and even against the sister of the current king of Spain.
The Socialist Party pounced on the fact that the allegations were based on articles published by media, mostly websites, with right-wing leanings.
Sánchez refused to answer questions when he was summoned by the judge, citing his prerogative as prime minister.
Gómez has also been dragged before a committee led by regional lawmakers in the Madrid region who say they are looking into her role as the director of a master’s program at a public university. She denies any wrongdoing.
Also under investigation is the prime minister's brother, David Sánchez. In that case, too, Manos Limpias was behind the accusations of alleged influence peddling.
Last week, a judge announced she was investigating how David Sánchez was named to his post in the Department of Culture in the Badajoz provincial government in southwest Spain. David Sánchez denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer.
Government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría said last week that while the government respects the separation of powers and the judicial processes, she found “suspicious similarities” between the cases involving the prime minister’s wife and brother.
“We are at ease because we know there is nothing to these cases," she said.
Another case that has been on slow boil for several months revolves around an alleged corruption ring of business people and government officials suspected of having taken kickbacks for contracts to buy medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scandal led to the Socialist Party expelling a former transport minister, Luis Ábalos, who had been a close confidant to Sánchez until he reshuffled his Cabinet in 2021 before the scandal broke. Ábalos denies any wrongdoing and has clung to his seat in parliament, now as an independent lawmaker.
A tax evasion case against the partner of a fierce political rival of Sánchez, the conservative leader of the powerful Madrid region, has also ended up backfiring politically for the Socialists.
The businessman boyfriend of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a firebrand Popular Party politician in charge of the central Madrid region, is being investigated for not paying his fair share in taxes.
But he hit back accusing state prosecutors of having violated his right to privacy for having leaked confidential financial and personal details. A court took up the complaint and is targeting Spain’s top state prosecutor, who was put in his position by Sánchez’s government. The top state prosecutor has defended his actions.
Last week, things got worse for the Socialists when their top politician in the Madrid region stepped down after he was implicated in the possible revelation of personal information.
Still, Sánchez appears to have — at least for now — the political coverage he needs to remain in charge.
He maintains the support of several regional parties that have kept his coalition between his Socialists and the farther-to-the-left Sumar party muddling along.
Also helping his longevity is the fact that the only alternative to his leadership is a right-wing coalition between the Popular Party and the far-right Vox party, a prospect that is anathema to some regional parties whose support was key to Sánchez's victory last year.
At the meeting of his Socialist Party, Sánchez urged optimism and hit back against his opponents: “Let the right be the ones with regrets and the ashy gray of pessimism.”
Wilson reported from Barcelona.
FILE - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez grimaces during a press conference after meeting with Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
The Israeli military said Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been captured alive by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack was killed that day and his body taken into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Biden administration says it is making another push for a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages, after nearly a year of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas repeatedly stalled.
Diplomats see a potential opening after last week’s ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that began launching rocket attacks and trading fire with Israel the day after the October 2023 attack.
The fragile ceasefire has held despite repeated Israeli strikes that have angered Lebanese officials but not yet triggered a response from Hezbollah. Israel says it has acted to thwart potential attacks.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. More than 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023.
Israel’s ongoing retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Here’s the Latest:
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s parliament speaker on Monday accused Israel of committing 54 breaches of the ceasefire that ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel, demanding urgent intervention to halt what he called “flagrant violations.”
Speaking to the Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri condemned Israel’s “aggressive actions,” including the alleged demolition of homes in border villages, the persistent overflight of Israeli reconnaissance drones, and airstrikes that have caused casualties.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Berri’s assertions. Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire deal to respond to perceived ceasefire violations.
An Israeli drone strike on Monday hit a Lebanese army military bulldozer in the northeastern town of Hermel, wounding a soldier, the Lebanese army said in a statement.
Also on Monday, an Israeli drone strike targeting a motorcycle in Jdeidet Marjayoun in southern Lebanon killed one person, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. In Bint Jbeil province, a drone strike injured one person, the state-run National News Agency said.
On Saturday, two people were killed in an airstrike on Marjayoun province, Lebanon’s state media said.
Berri called on the technical committee established to monitor the ceasefire to take immediate action, urging it to “oblige Israel to halt its violations and withdraw from Lebanese territories without delay.”
He said that Lebanon and Hezbollah have fully adhered to the terms of the ceasefire since the early hours of Wednesday. Berri is the leader of the Shiite Amal movement, which is closely allied with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Monday one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a motorcycle, while the Lebanese army said that a soldier was wounded in an Israeli strike on a military bulldozer at an army base.
The Israeli military said that it carried out a series of strikes in Lebanon on Sunday and Monday, including one in the same area where the soldier was said to have been wounded. It said it struck several military vehicles in Lebanon’s Bekaa province as well as strikes on Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
The incidents underscored the fragility of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah reached after nearly 14 months of cross-border fighting.
Since the ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday, Israel has struck several times in response to what it says have been ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. Lebanon has accused Israel of violating the deal but so far Hezbollah has not resumed its rocket fire.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday rejected accusations that Israel is violating the tenuous ceasefire agreement, saying it was responding to Hezbollah violations.
In a post on X, Saar said that he made that point in a call with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot. France, along with the U.S., helped broker the deal and is part of an international monitoring committee meant to ensure the sides uphold their commitments.
Israel says that it reserves the right under the deal to respond to perceived ceasefire violations.
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, is now presumed to have been killed during Hamas’ attack and his body taken into Gaza.
Neutra, 21, was a New York native who enlisted in the Israeli military and was captured when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, led a public campaign while he was thought to be alive for their son’s freedom. They spoke at protests in the U.S. and Israel, addressed the Republican National Convention this year and kept up ties with the Biden administration in their crusade to secure their son’s release.
In a statement announcing the death, the military did not say how it came to the conclusion over Neutra’s fate. He was one of seven American Israelis still held in Gaza, four of whom are now said to be dead. Hamas released a video of one, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was still alive.
In late summer, Israel said Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, another prominent Israeli American hostage, along with five other captives, whose bodies the Israeli military recovered.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, around two-thirds believed to be alive.
Iraqi militias supported by Iran deployed in Syria on Monday to back the government’s counteroffensive against a surprise advance by insurgents who seized the largest city of Aleppo, a militia official and a war monitor said.
Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged attack on Aleppo last week and the countryside around Idlib before moving toward neighboring Hama province. Government troops built a fortified defensive line in northern Hama in an attempt to stall the insurgents’ momentum while jets on Sunday pounded rebel-held lines.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus Sunday and announced Tehran’s full support for his government. He later arrived for talks in Ankara, Turkey, one of the rebels' main backers.
Iran has been of Assad’s principal political and military supporters and deployed military advisers and forces after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
Tehran-backed Iraqi militias already in Syria mobilized and additional forces crossed the border to support them, said the Iraqi militia official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
According to Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 200 Iraqi militiamen on pickups crossed into Syria overnight through the strategic Bou Kamal. They were expected to deploy in Aleppo to support the Syrian army’s pushback against the insurgents, the monitor said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported.
U.S. Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement and said they had targeted the U.S. destroyers and “three supply ships belonging to the American army in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Houthi attacks for months have targeted shipping through a waterway where $1 trillion in goods pass annually over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon. A ceasefire was announced in Lebanon last week.
The USS Stockdale was involved in a similar attack on Nov. 12.
Read more of the AP's coverage of the Middle East wars: https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-wars
Palestinian children play on the rubble of destroyed buildings at a neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli soldiers look at a destroyed part of Gaza City from their position at the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Young Palestinians walk amongst rubble of destroyed buildings at a neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian walk past destroyed building at a neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian boy walks past destroyed building at a neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
This undated photo provided by the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters shows Omer Neutra. (Hostages Families Forum Headquarters via AP)
