Spanish Shilling

Last Wednesday (July 9th), Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s answer to Pedro Sánchez’s plans to tighten up the anti-corruption laws was to say that Sánchez’s father-in-law ran gay saunas and that there was nothing worse than Sanchez and his family living from prostitution. The story is one of those exaggerations one finds in the far-right media (OKDiario says ‘Brothels, the word that destroys Sánchez among his colleagues around the world’). The original version of this drivel comes from ‘la policía patriótica’ (Wiki). 

Alberto could have talked about the dire economy (except, Spain’s economy is currently the toast of Europe), or maybe the endemic corruption to be found in politics (La Razón contrasts the high number of PP politicians passing through the Soto del Real jail in the last forty years or so against just one, Santos Cerdán, from the PSOE). He could have mentioned his party’s plans for Spain (although they don’t seem to have any). But to describe Sánchez as living off the ill-gotten gains of gay brothels probably brings Feijóo’s chances of taking over the country down to nil. From InfoLibre here: ‘Feijóo attacks Sánchez again on prostitution: "He participated in this abominable business"’, although, says the RTVE here, ‘The PP admits to having no evidence and relies on some journalistic information’. A bit like Judge Peinado with his ever-sillier investigation into Sánchez’ wife.

The PSOE is calling for a judicial investigation into whether Feijóo used bulos (fake news) from the ‘State Sewers’ (another unkind name for the last PP Ministry of the Interior fixers) to attack Sánchez. ‘"If Feijóo took to the podium of the Congress of Deputies with illegally obtained documents, we would be facing an extremely serious incident," the Socialists state’. Opinion from LaSexta here: ‘The dirtiest and most sleazy Feijóo. What will come next will be the usual media barrage of unfounded news, articles with half-truths, and some complete truths seasoned with the intention of linking the president to his father-in-law's professional activities...’. Long story short, Begoña’s late father rented out some locals to people who installed saunas. El HuffPost here says ‘In 2024, the Audiencia Nacional (High Court) ruled that the saunas linked to Sánchez's father-in-law were a "lawful private activity". The court also criticized the "deplorable partisan use" of this matter’.