A tale of two trials

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Mark Nayler

Friday, 10 April 2026, 12:14

It's hard to decide which is the worst of the two corruption trials that started in Madrid this week. The first centres on former Socialist transport minister José Luis Ábalos, once one of Pedro Sánchez's closest allies. Ábalos and his ex-advisor Koldo García are charged with taking kickbacks on face mask contracts during the pandemic; if found guilty, they face prison terms of 24 and 19 years, respectively.

The second case is focused on 76 year-old former PP party heavyweight Jorge Fernández Díaz, interior minister under Mariano Rajoy from 2011 to 2016. Díaz is charged with spying on Luis Bárcenas, the PP's treasurer from 2008 to 2009, to stop him releasing details about corruption within the party. Bárcenas is currently serving a 33-year prison term for his role in the Gürtel scandal, which finally ruined Rajoy's government. If convicted, Díaz could spend 15 years behind bars.

Both of these trials revolve around money and greed, but each is uniquely embarrassing for the party involved. I'll make the case for each being the most egregious example of high-level corruption (indulge me: if I weren't a writer, I might have been a barrister), and leave you to decide the verdict.

The Ábalos case is without doubt the worst. At a time when Spain's Socialist government was presenting itself as a guardian of public safety, some of its most senior members, it is alleged, were profiting from sanitary equipment that the government itself made compulsory in public spaces.

If Sánchez didn't know about the kickbacks allegedly being received by Ábalos and García, that's no defence. Rajoy wasn't even PP leader, let alone prime minister, for the first half of the Gürtel period, yet he was ousted by the Socialist leader in a vote of no confidence in 2018. If Ábalos and his former adviser are found guilty, Sánchez will have two options: resign, or stay on as the biggest hypocrite in Spanish politics.

(Me again): Nice try, but the PP trial is worse because it reveals a double-layer of arrogance and duplicity - of corruption feeding off corruption. Díaz was allegedly asked to spy on Bárcenas to prevent details of other illegal activity within the PP becoming public. Corrupt practices were used to combat corrupt practices, in a never-ending cycle of shameless self-interest. Clearly, the PP is - or at least was back then - a party rotten to the core.

Of course we already know, from the Gürtel scandal, that corruption has been a serious problem within Conservative ranks for decades. The Díaz case is merely another symptom of this incurable internal disease.

Both cases are appalling indictments of Spain's political class, and I'm not sure I can choose between them. Can you?