A series of allegations facing those around Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has hit the reputation of the socialist-led minority government.

Seven years after taking office by ousting corruption-ridden conservatives from government, Sánchez is fighting for his political life amid investigations into alleged graft in his Socialist party (PSOE).

On 12 June, an ashen-faced prime minister apologised to Spaniards after audio gathered by civil guard investigators was made public and appeared to show the PSOE secretary, Santos Cerdán, discussing commissions paid by companies in exchange for public contracts.

Sánchez has not himself been directly implicated, but the Socialist leader who came to power promising to clean up politics is now facing calls to resign from an invigorated opposition.

Cerdán, who was party number three, has resigned from the PSOE and stepped down as a member of parliament. He is due to appear before the Supreme Court on 25 June. He maintains he has never committed a crime nor been implicit in one.

The investigation into commissions is part of an ongoing probe which has already implicated José Luis Ábalos, a former PSOE secretary and transport minister. A third person implicated is Koldo García, an advisor to Ábalos. Both men featured with Cerdán in the recently exposed audio. All three say they have done nothing wrong.

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The party secretary, from the northern region of Navarre, was a trusted confidant of the prime minister, playing a crucial role, for example, in negotiating the support of Catalan nationalists to allow the formation of a new government in 2023.

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A judge has been investigating the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, for possible business irregularities - and his musician brother, David, is due to go on trial for alleged influence peddling in taking up a public post in the south-western city of Badajoz. Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, is also likely to face trial for revealing confidential details of a tax evader. All three deny wrongdoing.

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“The overall trend right now is a demobilised electorate on the left, particularly for the Socialist party, and an enormous mobilisation of voters on the right, which is capitalising on the discontent with the government,” Camas said.

Even the Socialist president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, Emiliano García-Page, has warned that “there is no dignified way out” for the PSOE.

However, as long as Sánchez can keep his fragile parliamentary majority of left-wing and nationalist parties together there is little the opposition can do to bring him down.

To that end, the prime minister has been frantically trying to reassure these allies, many of who have voiced outrage at the Cerdán-Ábalos scandal. Camas believes that persuading them to support a 2026 budget could be a way for Sánchez to buy some time.

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