The leader of Spain’s conservative opposition party has accused the country’s prime minister of profiting from brothels in an ugly parliamentary debate.
A senior government minister hit back, saying the Popular Party (PP) leader Alberto Feijoo was “dirty up to his neck” after making the claims against Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday.
"He wants us to talk about brothels, but no, we'll talk about scholarships, territorial cohesion, pensions, the economy... The PP can wallow in this filth," minister of justice Felix Bolanos said , according to El Pais.
The comments come after Mr Feijoo unleashed a furious rant at Mr Sanchez during the plenary Congress session, accusing the prime minister of profiting from brothels and gay saunas allegedly owned by his wife Begona Gomez’s family’s businesses.
"But who are you living with? What brothels have you lived in? You participated for profit in the abominable business of prostitution, and now you want to outlaw your life," he said to Mr Sanchez, according to El Diario.
The accusations came after Mr Sanchez unveiled a new plan to root out corruption on Wednesday, after senior members of his government were accused of taking bribes.
A Supreme Court judge last month ordered the ruling party’s former number three, Santos Cerdan, to be held in pre-trial detention over allegations that he received and distributed kickbacks in exchange for awarding public works contracts.
Mr Cerdan denies the allegations, which are part of a wider corruption inquiry that has led to opposition calls for a snap election that threaten to destabilise Sanchez's government.
Mr Sanchez told parliament at an extraordinary session on the case that he had briefly considered quitting but decided to stay on, arguing that he himself had done no wrong.
"I am a clean politician, I will not throw in the towel," he said.
Sanchez, who again rejected calls for an early election, announced 15 measures to strengthen anti-corruption measures, including preventing companies found guilty of bribery from winning government procurement contracts and working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's anti-corruption team to crack down on graft.
After Mr Feijoo’s accusations, Spanish media published conflicting and rapidly updating reports about the nature of the businesses and who purchased what.
According to El Diario, shortly after Mr Feijoo’s comments were made another outlet, OkDiaro published a story claiming that Mr Sanchez’s father-in-law purchased a family home for the prime minister while he was making a living from brothels.
Later the article was updated to say the business was gay saunas “with a notorious sexual component”, before clarifying that Ms Gomez’s father originally bought the house for himself and later gave it to his daughter, years after leaving the sauna business.
On Thursday, OkDiaro was reporting that in 2013 Ms Gomez purchased an apartment in Mojacar from the family business, whose sole director was listed at the time of sale as her uncle.
Mr Sanchez first became secretary-general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in 2014, and was elected as prime minister in 2018.
The Spanish prime minister has been rocked by scandal since April last year, when far-right trade union Manos Limpias filed court complaints against Ms Gomez of business corruption and influence peddling.
But an explosive joint investigation by the El Diario, El Pais and La Vanguardia newspapers published just days later uncovered a plot from the PP dating back a decade to spy on Mr Sanchez and Ms Gomez’s relatives to kill his political career.
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