The Spanish government has decided to go on the offensive against the publication in El Mundo newspaper of leaked WhatsApp messages that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez exchanged with his former Transport Minister and number two in the socialist party (PSOE), José Luis Ábalos, who has since left his post amid corruption allegations.
According to a report in El Pais, the government has insisted that ‘nothing compromising’ will be revealed from the private messages, but it is preparing legal action against their publication. The paper also reports that the government sees the publication of the messages ‘as another step in the harassment strategy’ against Sánchez.
In this latest political controversy in Spain, the messages have revealed how the socialist leader Sánchez referred to some of his top party figures and coalition partners as a ‘pain in the ass’ and ‘useless morons’.
The WhatsApp exchanges, shared between Sánchez and Ábalos, include sharp criticisms of regional party leaders. In one message, Sánchez refers to Javier Lambán, a socialist regional president, as a petardo – a term roughly translating to ‘useless moron’ – and insists that another socialist regional leader, Emiliano García-Page, ‘stop being a pain in the ass’.
The revelations – being published by El Mundo in ‘installments’ – have drawn renewed attention to Sánchez’s strained ties with the PSOE’s regional leadership, as well as to the broader question of what the prime minister may have known about the corruption allegations swirling around Ábalos, who is under criminal investigation. ALSO READ: Former Spanish transport minister ‘given Marbella villa stay for helping airline bailout’.
García-Page, who leads the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, reacted by noting the evident closeness between the two men during the time the messages were sent, between 2020 and 2021. ‘I think Ábalos is to a large extent the architect of Sánchez’s political career,’ he remarked, adding that they were ‘as thick as thieves’.
Ábalos, who served as Transport Minister from 2018 until 2021, is facing accusations of being part of a corruption network tied to contracts for medical supplies – specifically masks and other equipment – during the Covid-19 crisis. He has rejected the allegations. ALSO READ: Former Spanish transport minister denies corruption allegations in court.
Further embarrassment has come from police reports detailing Ábalos’s alleged relationship with a prostitute, for whom he reportedly rented an apartment in central Madrid and arranged employment in state-owned companies where she performed no actual work.
Although Sánchez removed Ábalos from the cabinet in 2021, the two remained in contact, continuing to exchange messages. When the scandal erupted last year, Ábalos was expelled from the PSOE but continues to serve as an independent member of parliament.
The main right-wing opposition party, the People’s Party (PP), has reiterated accusations that the messages demonstrate Sánchez’s awareness of the alleged corruption and his efforts to cover it up. PP MP Elías Bendodo criticised the prime minister, claiming the messages reflect ‘the true sketch of an authoritarian Pedro Sánchez, unscrupulous and with a brutal thirst for revenge inside and outside the Socialist party’.
In the communications, Sánchez pressures Ábalos to rein in García-Page, a long-time opponent of the prime minister’s alliances with Catalan separatists and Basque nationalists. He also instructs him to confront Javier Lambán of Aragón and Guillermo Fernández Vara of Extremadura, who had also clashed with Sánchez.
Lambán responded to the disclosures by expressing astonishment at the intensity of Sánchez’s ‘anger’ and his apparent ‘loss of control’ during several phone calls they shared at the time.
These leaked texts have cast light on how Sánchez exerted control over his party, with messages in which he also labelled colleagues ‘hypocrites’ and a ‘disgrace’.
In other examples, he refers to Defence Minister Margarita Robles as una pájara – a derogatory term used to describe a shrewd and unprincipled woman – and that she ‘sleeps in her uniform’.
He also accused former Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, who led the left-wing Podemos party and the government’s junior coalition partner at the time, of ‘stupidity’ and being politically ‘clumsy’.
The origin of the leaks remains unknown. Speculation in the Spanish media suggests several possible sources: a leak from the Supreme Court, investigators in the Guardia Civil’s Central Operative Unit (UCO), García-Page himself, or even Ábalos.
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#Exclusiva 🔵 Sánchez y Ábalos maniobraron para apartar a Mañueco “trabajando” con una tránsfuga de Ciudadanos https://t.co/0bbaKIRymP
— EL MUNDO (@elmundoes) May 14, 2025
#Exclusiva 🔵 “Te tengo en mi alma”: el mensaje de Montero a Ábalos un año después de su destitución https://t.co/MjQQUwUVlF
— EL MUNDO (@elmundoes) May 14, 2025
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