💰 Sánchez announces anti-corruption crusade amid PSOE scandal
Plus: Vox goes Trump on deportation, Carl Body has a bad day, and the taxman cometh.
Madrid | Issue #110
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Here we go again
🚨 PM Sánchez says he’s here to save Spain from corruption. Does anyone believe it?
Pedro Sánchez looks tired. And not just because he told Parliament yesterday he considered resigning.
The Prime Minister was back on the ropes - again - over the never-ending Koldo Case, a corruption scandal that started with COVID-era contracts and has since spiraled into a full-blown political migraine for his PSOE government. His two closest allies are now out (one in prison!), the opposition is yelling “¡dimisión!” in Parliament, and even his coalition partners are beginning to squirm.
So what did Sánchez (aka Mr Handsome) do? He tried to hit reset - with a 15-point anti-corruption plan he pitched as a brave new dawn for Spanish politics. (And also, not unrelatedly, a way to save his job.)
Public castigation. The announcement came during a parliamentary session that felt like a soft public spanking - Mr Handsome said he was sorry many, many times; his allies said they were very disappointed; and no one did anything to punish him. It was part apology tour, part bid to hold together his tense coalition.
So another…agency. At the heart of the new plan is the creation of an independent Public Integrity Agency, a central body tasked with preventing, monitoring, and cracking down on corruption across government. The devil 👺? In the details, natch.
Lots of input. The full plan was developed with input from the OECD, GRECO (Council of Europe's anti-corruption body), parliamentary groups, and civil society experts. Sánchez pitched it as a way to place Spain at the “forefront” of institutional transparency in Europe. Which would be a big step because Spain has been at the “forefront” of corruption for, like, ever. (And the European Commission just warned that Spain has a “high risk of corruption” in public contracts.)
Rules and stuff. The measures, grouped into five categories, include AI tools to detect fraud in public procurement, stricter compliance standards for companies bidding on public contracts, real-time transparency for political donations over €2,500, and protections for whistleblowers. There are also stronger penalties for corrupt practices, including longer statutes of limitations and increased fines tied to a company’s annual revenue.
But today’s session wasn’t about policy, it was personal theater. The Koldo case has rocked the PSOE socialists and Sánchez has (sorta) acknowledged his role - that is, he appointed the two main villains (Santos Cerdán, and former Transport minister José Luis Ábalos), both of whom were No. 3 PSOE execs and his right-hand men. “That was my mistake,” he said, already clinching 2025’s Understatement Award 🏆 with six months to go.
Looking old. Sánchez opened by saying the crisis had shaken him deeply (El Español says stress is making him look skinny and… not well). He also said he even considered “throwing in the towel” after learning about the damning allegations involving Cerdán (now in prison).
So very brave. However, he said resigning was not an option because he’s “a clean politician, and will stay and fight” (he did not mention that his party would get completely thrashed if he called elections). The socialists on the floor clapped on cue while right-wing MPs booed and chanted “resign”. No surprises here.
Rally the troops. His words were also meant to rally the support and fear that keeps his government afloat. And it worked! Sánchez’s partners in Parliament were both cautiously supportive and fearful that if he left their political careers would end.
Look at what we did. Second Deputy PM Yolanda Díaz of Sumar praised the plan and herself, highlighting that 10 of the 15 measures mirrored proposals from her party.
Joker. Genius troll Gabriel Rufián from ERC (Catalan lefty separatists) warned that more scandal could make Sánchez a liability (for them): “If this escalates, we’ll be forced to choose between professional corruption and amateurism.”
Something tough-ish but really not much. Miriam Nogueras of Junts’ (also Catalan separatists, but on the right) was vaguely threatening: “You’re in overtime, and overtime doesn’t last an entire term.” EH Bildu’s (Basque separatists) said they would continue to support him because, “The right won’t find an ally in us.” And the PNV, usually grim and measured, expressed grim and measured concern, saying their confidence “is in the ICU.” But action? None.
No changes for now. So far, no coalition supporter has withdrawn their support, but as we noted, most would get creamed in elections, so they have no reason to unless it gets crazy bad (and even then…). More revelations in the coming weeks could threaten Sánchez’s hold on power (or not). There’s a classic image of two drunk men holding each other up as they walk down the street, so they don’t fall. This is a bit like that, en español.
More news below. 👇👇
💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties
1. 🟢 Vox goes full Trump, calls for up to 8m deportations
Spain’s far-right party just turned the immigration volume to 11 - channeling the spirit of a Big Orange Man 🎃 across the Atlantic. And the result? A 24-hour political firestorm involving crime, conspiracy, and some gaslighty math.
Where it started. Last week, a young man from Mali was arrested for an alleged sexual assault near a migrant center in Alcalá de Henares, outside Madrid.
8 million. This week Vox MP Rocío de Meer took the incident as her cue to propose the “reemigration” (yes, the German far-right’s favorite euphemism) of up to 8m immigrants, including those born in Spain (who are not immigrants, but anyhoo…), if they “fail to integrate”. And just in case you’re wondering, she did say that (see video above).
Going full “great replacement”. De Meer cited a study by demographer Alejandro Macarrón from the CEU-CEFAS Demographic Observatory, a research shop run by the Catholic Association of Propagandists, who argues that, given the birth rate of native Spaniards and that of the foreign population in Spain, “by 2044, more than 50% of Spain’s population will be either born abroad or the children of foreigners”.
So, naturally… De Meer argued that deporting millions was necessary to preserve Spanish national identity. Also, presumably, to stop weird foods from entering the Spanish diet.
Looking at you, PP. Knowing that it is highly likely that the PP would need Vox’s support to form a coalition government, the far-right party said it would refuse to work with the PP if the party chose a policy of legalizing undocumented migrants over one of mass deportations.
PP back to Vox: You’re not pulling us into this. Party secretary general Miguel Tellado said the PP does not support mass deportations and reiterated their belief in “orderly and legal immigration,” while PP bigwig Ester Muñoz cited Spanish law and European human rights conventions that prohibit collective expulsions.
Trolling a bit? Madrid regional presi Isabel Díaz Ayuso toed a more ambiguous line (as she often does with Vox), ignoring Vox’s plan but bringing up the Alcalá de Henares case and blaming Sánchez for being disloyal to “hardworking immigrants.”
At least it was good for someone. For a scandal-weary government, Vox’s drama was a godsend. PM Sánchez posted that Spain “is a welcoming country,” while his spokesperson Pilar Alegría skipped the niceties and called the plan “a racist and xenophobic delusion.”
You must have misunderstood. Did we say Vox intended to deport up to 8m immigrants? Turns out it’s fake news! At least that’s what Vox boss San Diego Obescal Santiago Abascal tweeted, gaslighting us accusing the media of twisting De Meer’s words (even though, again, it's what she literally said).
8m ≠ 8m. Abascal claimed they never specified 8m. They just want to remove immigrants who commit crimes, refuse integration, or who want to impose a “strange religion” (you get one guess which it is). We just don’t know how many there are! So De Meer didn’t mean millions. Just…“as many as needed” to protect Spanish families. Which is definitely not the same thing. Probably. Maybe.
You silly goose! Learn to read next time.
2.🕵🏻♂️ Actor Imanol Arias sentenced for tax fraud
Imanol Arias is one of Spain’s most recognizable actors. Think Robert De Niro but with a deeper tan and a decades-long run on prime-time TV. He was the star of TV show Cuéntame Cómo Pasó, or Tell Me How it Happened, the longest-running primetime series in Spanish TV history, covering the country’s political and cultural changes through the eyes of a middle-class family from 1968 to 2001. He was also in, like, a million movies.
But this is less positive. Arias was in the news this week, although for reasons unrelated to his stardom: he finally managed to close a decade-long legal nightmare with Hacienda (aka the Spanish tax authorities).
Happy ending. Sort of. Turns out that Arias was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for tax fraud. Which is bad! But thanks to a deal with prosecutors and his cooperation with the court, he won’t serve any jail time. Which is good!
Backstory. The case dates back to 2010–2013, when Arias (then at the peak of his fame thanks to Cuéntame) allegedly evaded over €2m in income tax. Naughty boy!
Shell game. Prosecutors say he did so using opaque corporate structures created by Nummaria, a now-notorious tax advisory firm that managed the finances of several public figures.
Fine, got me. The actor eventually repaid €2.2m and struck a plea deal with Spain’s anti-corruption prosecutor in 2023, admitting guilt in five tax crimes. He has since said he’s “at peace” with the decision, that he’s “owned up” to what he did, and that this episode is now “closed” in his life.
Feel for the man. For Arias, who once earned €70,000 a week (that’s a lot of money here), the affair has left scars. At 69, he says he’s focused on a calmer life and theater projects, though the court’s sentence (while not final) has clearly weighed heavily on his public image.
Man behind the tax-dodging curtain. It looks like the real mastermind behind this whole mess was Fernando Peña, a former tax inspector turned fiscal guru (eye roll), who founded the Nummaria firm in Madrid.
Shell salesman. Peña provided shell companies in Costa Rica, England, and Luxembourg to help clients like Arias conceal income and dodge taxes.
Lots of jail time. The court found he not only advised on the scams but also managed and monitored the fake companies himself. For all of this, Peña was handed a staggering 80-year prison sentence. 😱
At least somebody went free. Arias’s co-star in Cuéntame, Ana Duato, was also investigated for tax dodging but was acquitted this week.
Dumb authorities. Her lawyers successfully argued that she had relied on professional advisors and had no intention of committing fraud. More important? A critical report revealed that tax authorities miscounted more than 80 episodes of the show in their calculations, undermining much of the case against her. Duh.
So it’s a Hollywood ending for everyone (well, not for Peña)! If you’re ever in the mood for some classic Spanish TV, watch an episode of Cuéntame.
3. 🧠 Meta sued by 373 Barcelona content moderators for psychological damage
In 2018, Barcelona was buzzing. Facebook (sorry - Meta) was opening a glamorous new office in the Torre Glòries, the city’s most phallic architectural achievement/the rainbow penis bullet. Five hundred jobs to start! Tech money! San Francisco by the Med! 💫
Except, well, not quite. The jobs weren’t at Meta but at a subcontractor called CCC (for Competence Call Centre - not at all dystopian and creepy). And the work wasn’t glamorous - it was content moderation, aka the dark underbelly of social media. These workers were the human wall standing between your Instagram feed and the absolute worst of the internet: suicides, beheadings, child porn, dead animals, terrorist snuff films. All for €25k a year and the occasional “wellness break.”
Now, seven years later, the dream has imploded. Meta pulled the contract on the moderation operation this spring, and 2,059 people were laid off. But that’s not the end. A total of 373 former moderators (in two legal waves of 344 and 29) have in recent weeks sued Telus, the Canadian company that bought CCC in 2020 - plus Meta’s Spanish and Irish arms - for psychological damage. They want €100,000 each. And honestly? They may have a point.
PTSD. One lawsuit describes a man suffering from “sad moods, hopelessness, hyporexia with weight loss, apathy, insomnia, nightmares, bruxism, impulse phobias, flashbacks of images from the content he was viewing, repeated intrusive memories, and fear that the situations observed on the screen would manifest in his daily life.” Such effects, says the suit, were not treated with serious psychological support. Instead, workers were told to color mandalas or watch cat videos. 😾
Therapy breaks. Some staff were allowed one 45-minute therapy session per week - far less than other platforms like YouTube reportedly provide. And the better you were at your job, the darker it got: high-performing moderators were rewarded with access to the “high priority” queue, a hellstream of the most disturbing content imaginable.
Meta claims it wasn’t the employer. But the lawsuits argue otherwise (maybe because Meta has more 🤑). Meta allegedly set the quotas (98% accuracy), the software, the training, and the standards - and, crucially, never made the workplace safe. The Spanish lawsuits argue that Meta, which already settled a similar U.S. case in 2020 for $52 million, is guilty of “illegal outsourcing” and negligent workplace practices.
Some of the lawsuits are civil; others are criminal. All accuse Meta of ignoring the risks of trauma while squeezing human moderators to do what AI still can’t: remove the worst parts of humanity from the screen.
Barcelona's moderation hub is now closed. Meta has shifted to “community notes,” AI filters, and cheaper markets. But for the people who kept Facebook’s feed clean in Barcelona, the trauma lingers. September will bring the first hearings in local labor courts.
Happy thoughts. “Even busy bees stop to smell the roses,” read a cheerful CCC office sign. Not quite enough, right?
4. 🥺 Brussels is a tough town (if you’re Pedro Sánchez)
The troubles from Brussels. Spain’s government got two pieces of bad news from Brussels this week at a time when PM Pedro Sánchez could use a win. Though to be honest they weren’t quite as bad as they looked at first glance. Here’s why.
We’re cutting your allowance. Brussels’ first swipe at Spain came in the form of €1,1bn cut off its expected fifth tranche of Next Generation EU funds (they’re the European Commission's plan to help EU member states recover from the COVID-19 pandemic). Spain was meant to receive €24.14bn but only got about €23bn.
But why? Countries have to clear hurdles to receive the funds, and Spain failed to reach some of its milestones. For example, it hasn’t reduced the number of public functionaries on temporary contracts, or digitalized local and regional governments enough, or passed a new tax on diesel (for environmental reasons).
That last bit shows how hard it is to get an A+ from Brussels. The Sánchez government tried twice to pass a diesel tax, but got shut down both times: the first came in late 2020, when the PSOE removed it from the 2021 budget to get support from the PNV Basque nationalists, and the second time at the end of last year (during the clusterpoop that was the “impuestazo”) when it again got shot down.
But we’re doing good! Spain’s government would like you to know it’s a good boy (or girl), however. Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo (aka Carl Body) downplayed the not quite full payment, noting that "we are not the first country to receive a partial payment, nor will we be the last," and adding that Spain has already gotten 70% of its NextGen grants - putting it #1 in the rankings, ahead of France and Italy. Plus, it can get the missed funds if it meets its goals later! 🎉🥳
Talking about Carl Body. The Bod himself had a bit of a setback this week, when he threw his hat in the ring to be president of the Eurogroup. But he announced he was withdrawing his candidacy on Monday because, well, people weren’t voting for him.
That sounds sad. 😭 “We've been trying to rally support for the past weeks, including conversations over the weekends, and the numbers did not, somehow, get to the 11 votes that we needed," he said.
The real problem. The current Eurogroup head, Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe, got a third term because, well, politics. He’s supported by the pan-European branch of the PP, which has the most power in Brussels now. And so, despite the fact that people aren’t excited about him - he has, in the words of Politico, been “criticized for his cautious approach” - he beat PSOE’s Cuerpo and Lithuania's finance minister Rimantas Šadžius, of the same political group.
This again? The same thing happened to Spain’s former Economy Minister Nadia Calviño, who lost to Donohoe five years ago. At least she was later named president of the European Investment Bank (salary €381,397.92), which is not a bad consolation prize.
Brussels might be nicer next week. At least Mr Handsome can hope.
5. 🔍 'Futon killer' comes to Spain - and gets nabbed by Galician ‘good eye’
Think you’ve got eagle eyes? A woman in the Galician town of O Milladoiro just put you to shame.
It started with a murder in Philadelphia - and ended with a fugitive caught at the gate in Santiago de Compostela’s airport. The case had everything: Betrayal, exotic dancers, a corpse in a futon - and an amateur sleuth with a sharp TikTok habit.
The murder. On April 5, police in Philly discovered the body of 21-year-old Yuleisy Torrelles - a Spanish-Venezuelan woman who’d lived in Mallorca since 2017 after arriving at 13 years old, and had just arrived in the U.S. “chasing a better life” - wrapped in a shower curtain and stuffed into a futon in her apartment. She had been stabbed in the neck and chest, and someone had tried (and failed) to set her body on fire.
The prime suspect? Her roommate and fellow exotic dancer, Gerelys Sánchez-Reyes, 28, vanished the next day with Yuleisy’s cash, car, two Visa gold cards - and Spanish passport.
The chase. What followed was a cross-continental cat-and-mouse game: Gerelys used the stolen passport to fly to Madrid via Munich and then disappeared into Santiago, where she spent nearly three months hiding out - sorta. She hit up pubs in O Milladoiro, danced at discotecas, played pool, made friends. “She was very friendly and not discreet at all; she seemed like a lot of fun,” said one barmaid who’d befriended her. “Well, the only thing is that she never paid, so maybe she didn't have any work.”
And then 👀? TikTok worked its magic.
Gallega sleuth. As Yuleisy’s friends and family flooded social media with images of the suspected killer, a local woman scrolling TikTok recognized a familiar face - and went to the police. “Muy, muy buen ojo,” said a police spokesman. No kidding: she had just ID’ed one of Pennsylvania’s 20 most wanted.
Cops on the case. The Galician cops tracked Gerelys through cafés, shops, hostels, and clubs, coordinating with Interpol, the U.S. Marshals, and the American Embassy. But without a formal extradition request from the U.S., they had to wait. Until June 26, that is, when agents saw her board a bus for the airport. Destination: Brussels ✈️
Cue the diplomatic scramble. Calls to Washington, emergency filings, a mad dash to activate an international arrest warrant before the boarding gate closed. Finally, just as Gerelys stepped onto the jet bridge, Spain received the U.S. warrant. Officers pulled her from the plane - 81 days after she landed in Spain.
And now? She now awaits extradition from a Galician prison, and the woman from O Milladoiro may be in line for a $20,000 reward.
Unlikely story. As for Gerelys? She insists she’s innocent. In a voice message to Yuleisy’s father in Mallorca, she claimed: “A guy at the club drugged her and she fell down the stairs.”
Yeah…um, no. And then wrapped herself in a shower curtain, climbed into a futon, and lit a match?
Gerelys also told him, "God's justice is the only one that exists." Seems like the earthly kind will have to do for now… ⚖️
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