The Spanish government and left are imitating Putin and reacting to Zapatero's indictment with massive disinformation

The way a government responds to a legal accusation says a lot about the democratic quality of those who make it up.

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A judicial indictment for several crimes that implicate the government

This morning, the National Court announced that it has summoned former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as a suspect in influence peddling and other related crimes in the Plus Ultra case, one of the corruption cases affecting the coalition government of socialists and communists led by Pedro Sánchez.

In the court order summoning Zapatero as a suspect, Judge José Luis Calama points to the existence of "an organized scheme of illicit influence peddling, structurally organized and led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who allegedly used his personal contacts and access to high-ranking government officials to benefit third parties interested in obtaining favorable decisions."

The statement published by the National Court indicates that the executives of the airline Plus Ultra "established two distinct lines of influence, one through the then Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos and the other through Rodríguez Zapatero. Although both channels allegedly operated simultaneously, it was ultimately the latter's channel that acquired a "predominant role" and allowed Plus Ultra to achieve its objectives," referring to obtaining a multi-million euro bailout from the government of Pedro Sánchez.

That accusation puts the PSOE in a serious predicament

In recent years, Zapatero has been very close to Pedro Sánchez and has had enormous influence in his government. In fact, the former president has played a very important role in the Socialists' recent election campaigns. In the recent Andalusian election campaign, he was a prominent participant in PSOE events in Málaga (in the company of Sánchez) Huelva, Cádiz and Motril.

In almost half a century of democracy in Spain, this is the first time a former prime minister has been formally charged. For the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and its coalition partners, this indictment is a particularly serious setback, given Zapatero's ties and business dealings with the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela. This explains why the far left, which has openly supported that authoritarian regime, has come out in force to support the former socialist president.

A reaction typical of Vladimir Putin's dictatorship

Moreover, what we have seen in the last few hours from the government and the left in Spain is very reminiscent of the attitude of Vladimir Putin's dictatorship, an authoritarian and deeply corrupt regime that tries to resolve all its scandals by systematically resorting to lies. During a press conference following this morning's Council of Ministers meeting, Minister and government spokesperson Elma Saiz lied twice about Zapatero's indictment, claiming that the investigation stemmed from "a complaint from an ultra-right-wing organization like Manos Limpias", when in reality it all started with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office after receiving two requests in 2024 from the French and Swiss Public Prosecutor's Offices, which were tracking a "criminal organization" linked to the Plus Ultra bailout.

As usual, RTVE, the public channel controlled by the government, has spread the hoax launched by La Moncloa, as have other media outlets and many activists and influential voices on the left through social media. In her usual style, from the communist party Podemos, which has been supporting the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship, Ione Belarra has reacted to Zapatero's indictment by launching slanderous attacks against other former presidents, falsely accusing José María Aznar of being a "war criminal" and the late Adolfo Suárez of being a "sexual predator," lies that are not supported by any judicial decision.

I hope Aznar and Suárez's family respond with lawsuits to Belarra's intolerable slander. Falsely accusing another person of a crime, knowing it to be a lie, is a crime defined in Article 206 of the Penal Code and punishable by imprisonment for six months to two years. Let's remember that Podemos leader Irene Montero was already convicted in court for spreading slander three years ago, and that once convicted, she refused to pay the victim the compensation established in the sentence. These people think that in a democracy anything goes, even resorting to lies to falsely accuse others of crimes. Well, no.

The reaction from the left demonstrates that this accusation is well-founded

The furious reaction from the left demonstrates that this legal accusation is well-founded. If it weren't, the left would be offering sound legal arguments to counter it. Instead, and as has happened before with other government corruption scandals, the left's response is based simply on resorting to an ad hominem fallacy, according to which corruption crimes should not be investigated if they are reported by certain people or organizations, and on a systematic attack on the judiciary, which is one of the checks and balances that exist in all democracies to curb abuses of power. With this reaction, once again, the left is giving us a clear picture of its contempt for democracy.

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Photo: Efe.