Former Spanish PM under criminal investigation as €53m bailout of airline examined

The former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been placed under investigation for alleged influence-peddling and other offences by a judge examining the state bailout of a Venezuela-linked airline during the Covid pandemic.

Zapatero, a socialist who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2011, has been ordered to appear before Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, on 2 June.

Although other former and serving Spanish prime ministers have been called to testify in corruption cases, this is the first time a former prime minister has been placed under criminal investigation.

The latest investigation is part of an inquiry into the €53m (£46m) state rescue of the Spanish airline Plus Ultra in March 2021. Prosecutors are examining whether the company made “inadequate use” of the public funds the government approved for the bailout, while anti-corruption police are investigating whether the airline used the rescue money to launder funds from Venezuela through France, Switzerland and Spain.

According to the investigating judge, Zapatero is alleged to have overseen “a hierarchical structure of influence peddling”, whose purpose was “to obtain economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before public bodies in favour of third parties, mainly Plus Ultra”.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the court said the judge had authorised police to search Zapatero’s office as well as those of three other companies.