Madrid leader’s partner takes legal steps to sue Pedro Sánchez for calling him a ‘criminal’

Businessman Alberto González Amador is demanding that Sánchez and Justice Minister Félix Bolaños publicly retract their comments, or he will sue for €100,000 from Sánchez and €50,000 from the minister, according to El Diario.es.

Amador, the partner of Ayuso, believes Sánchez and Bolaños violated the ‘respect and protection of a Spanish citizen’s basic rights’, according to an initial report in the daily El Mundo.

Investigators have been probing allegations of tax fraud against Amador since March after one of his companies offering health services saw its earnings soar during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. ALSO READ: Partner of Madrid regional leader Ayuso faces alleged tax fraud probe.

Spanish media have said Amador offered a deal to prosecutors in which he would admit the alleged offences in exchange for avoiding a trial and receiving a sentence that would spare him jail.

Sánchez and Bolaños referred to Amador last week as ‘a confessed criminal who defrauded the treasury’, in a case that has generated a media frenzy in Spain.

Ayuso, a figurehead for the Spanish right and an acerbic critic of Sánchez’s successive left-wing governments since 2018, has said the affair is a ‘savage’ campaign by the state against her.

The populist leader has refused to meet Spain’s PM in a meeting scheduled for this week, arguing that it would be ‘against the interests of Spain and therefore those of Madrid directly’ and that they ‘have served no purpose’ previously.

In a separate decision on Monday, Spain’s top criminal court threw out a complaint by the PP opposition against the PSOE for alleged illegal financing.

The court said the complaint, based on a press report citing anonymous sources, did not justify opening criminal proceedings.