Spain's Supreme Court jails ex-minister Ábalos for 24 years in pandemic graft case

Spain's Supreme Court on Monday sentenced José Luis Ábalos, a former transport minister and one of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's closest political allies, to 24 years in prison for leading a corruption scheme that rigged public contracts for protective masks at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unanimous ruling by the court's Criminal Chamber is the first verdict in a cluster of graft cases that has crept steadily closer to Sánchez's Socialist-led government, and the heaviest blow yet to a prime minister who took office in 2018 vowing to clean up Spanish politics. Sánchez was not charged and was not on trial, but the conviction of a man who was for years his right-hand figure lands directly on the governing Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

A 24-year sentence, capped by law

Ábalos, who served as minister of transport, mobility and urban agenda from 2018 to 2021 and as the PSOE's powerful organisation secretary, was convicted of forming a criminal organisation, continuous bribery, embezzlement of public funds and influence peddling. The nominal term runs to 24 years and three months, although Spanish sentencing rules cap the time he can actually serve at a maximum of around 15 years.

His former adviser and fixer, Koldo García, was sentenced to 19 years. Víctor de Aldama, the businessman at the centre of the scheme, received four and a half years, but the seven-judge panel suspended his prison term in recognition of his cooperation in exposing the network — on condition that he commits no new offences, files twice-yearly activity reports and completes a year of community service.

The court described a three-tier structure, according to Spanish and international media accounts of the ruling: Ábalos supplied the institutional authority, García transmitted his decisions, and Aldama lined up companies seeking government favours in exchange for commissions that were then shared out among them.

Masks, kickbacks and a Madrid flat

The case, known in Spain as the "Koldo affair", centres on emergency contracts awarded in 2020, when governments worldwide were scrambling for protective equipment. Prosecutors said a firm linked to Aldama secured public deals to supply roughly 13 million face masks to state bodies, bypassing normal tender rules. In return, investigators say, money and favours flowed to Ábalos and his circle. Reported benefits include:

• monthly payments of about €10,000 described as "fixed expenses";
• housing costs covered for an associate, and jobs arranged for two women connected to him at companies overseen by his ministry;
• a rent-to-buy arrangement with Aldama for an apartment in Madrid.

Aldama, who turned on his former partners, testified to paying around €640,000 in bribes to various officials. Ábalos has consistently denied wrongdoing, telling the court he had done nothing improper in the mask contracts.

A government besieged by graft cases

The verdict lands on an administration already fighting corruption allegations on several fronts. Santos Cerdán, who succeeded Ábalos as the PSOE's organisation secretary, spent around five months in provisional detention in 2025 over alleged kickbacks on public-works contracts. The prime minister's wife, Begoña Gómez, has been indicted on charges including influence peddling and embezzlement and was ordered this month not to leave the country. Spain's former attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, became the first person in that office in Spanish history to be convicted, and resigned after the Supreme Court disqualified him for leaking confidential information.

From the governing benches, PSOE spokesperson Montse Mínguez directed her anger at Aldama's escape from jail.

"Is it worth being a corruptor in Spain? Because, honestly, it's hard to understand."

The opposition seized on the ruling to demand the government's departure. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People's Party (PP), said it was "indecent" that Sánchez should remain "in the Presidency one more minute" and renewed his call for the prime minister to resign or call early elections. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP president of the Madrid region, asked: "Isn't it enough for you to call elections, Pedro Sánchez?" Sánchez has repeatedly framed the wave of investigations as a campaign by his political opponents to force him from power.

What it means for Sánchez — and Europe

Sánchez has not been personally implicated in the mask scheme, and there is no indication the verdict will immediately topple his government. But it tightens the political vice around a leader who governs through a fragile minority coalition of his PSOE and the left-wing Sumar bloc, dependent on the votes of smaller regional and nationalist parties whose patience has worn thin. Even some allies have signalled discomfort: the Catalan pro-independence party ERC urged the Socialists to undertake "urgent cleaning" rather than blame the judiciary.

The stakes extend beyond Madrid. Spain is the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, and Sánchez is among the few remaining centre-left leaders at the head of a major European Union government, an interlocutor Brussels has leaned on over migration, defence spending and the bloc's next long-term budget. A drawn-out crisis of authority in one of the EU's larger member states — with the prospect of a snap election or a government unable to pass legislation — would ripple across European politics at a moment when stable governing majorities are already in short supply.

For now, Sánchez has given no sign he intends to step aside, and the conviction can still be challenged before Spain's Constitutional Court. But the image of a former cabinet minister and party number two facing a 24-year sentence — the first hard verdict in a widening run of cases — has handed his opponents their most potent weapon yet, and left his government to govern under a lengthening shadow.