Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the detention of Spain’s former transport minister and a top confidant of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, placing him at the centre of a corruption scandal that has shaken the already precarious left-leaning coalition government.
The case surrounding José Luis Ábalos (main image) – a once dominant socialist party (PSOE) figure instrumental in Sánchez’s 2018 rise – is one of several graft investigations destabilising the minority government.
Ábalos, his former adviser Koldo García and another ex-Socialist heavyweight, Santos Cerdán, are alleged to have taken commissions linked to public contracts for pandemic-era sanitary supplies.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said Ábalos and García would be held without bail on suspicions including bribery, influence peddling and embezzlement, citing an ‘extreme’ risk that they might flee.
It added that ‘numerous rational indications of criminality exist against both’, and that the steps taken were ‘combined with a foreseeably imminent trial’. ALSO READ: Spanish court preparing trial for former transport minister José Luis Ábalos.
Prosecutors are seeking a 24-year sentence for Ábalos – expelled from the PSOE ranks and now sitting as an independent MP – and 19 and a half years for García.
Cerdán, who stepped down as the party’s powerful organisation secretary and resigned his parliamentary seat, was freed last week after spending nearly five months behind bars. ALSO READ: Supreme Court releases ex-ally of PM implicated in corruption probe, but is barred from leaving Spain.
The affair has dealt a major blow to a government elected on promises to purge corruption from Spanish politics, following the conviction of the right-wing People’s Party (PP) in an earlier graft case.
It has also strained relations within the coalition between the socialists and the left-wing Sumar alliance, fuelling talk of an early return to the polls.
Sánchez has consistently rejected allegations of illicit party financing and has declined to dissolve parliament, insisting recently that ‘all spending has been accounted for, credited and audited’.ALSO READ: Spanish PM denies corruption in rowdy senate hearing, calling it a ‘circus’ and ‘witch hunt’.
Separate inquiries have also drawn in the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, and his younger brother, David Sánchez.
The mounting legal battles add to the difficulties confronting the minority administration, which already faces consistent obstacles in pushing legislation through parliament. ALSO READ: Catalan pro-independence party JxCat to veto all Spanish government-proposed laws in Congress.
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Del Tribunal Supremo, Ábalos y Koldo García irán a la madrileña cárcel de Soto del Real.
Lo hacen una semana después de que saliera de allí, en libertad condicional, Santos Cerdán
Lo cuenta @ArturoLopo en el #Canal24Horas
▶️ https://t.co/wIMPtOsyLR pic.twitter.com/Nh0Afxu3qT— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) November 27, 2025
#ÚLTIMAHORA | El Supremo envía a Ábalos y Koldo a prisión provisional por riesgo de fuga ante el juicio por la trama de mascarillas. Es la primera vez que un diputado nacional en ejercicio tendrá que entrar en la cárcel https://t.co/EnL3NDyIL7
— Europa Press (@europapress) November 27, 2025
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