Last-minute surprise in the trial against David Sánchez. The court last night admitted the PP’s request for the president’s brother to face a new accusation of malfeasance, which would carry six years in prison, double the three years requested until now.
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Last Monday, the court accepted David Sánchez’s defense’s request to consider a minor offense, which would have been committed by accepting the illegal appointment at the Badajoz Provincial Council on July 10, 2017, as prescribed. The accusations protested, and it seemed that the matter had been left at that, as a mere protest.
But last night, during the conclusions phase, the PP’s lawyer asked for that crime to be changed to another, which refers to the same facts, and which would not be prescribed. It is a crime of malfeasance whose penalty is six years, double what was requested until now for the brother of the President of the Government.
The president’s brother denied having facilitated the hiring of his friend Luis Carrero
The trial entered its final stretch yesterday with the statements of Sánchez himself and the former president of the Badajoz Provincial Council, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, accused of allegedly having created a senior management position as coordinator of conservatories tailored to the brother of the current President of the Government. Sánchez and Gallardo only answered questions from their lawyers.
During the investigation, David Sánchez could not specify what the Office of Performing Arts, which he directed between 2022 and 2025, was. Yesterday he corrected that error and explained that this office “was not a physical place with a counter.” What the accusations suspect is that David Sánchez requested a change of position so as not to have exclusivity with the Badajoz Provincial Council and to be able to dedicate himself to other tasks. Thus, the modification of the job position would have been made to eliminate incompatibility, but that was not legal.
David Sánchez tried to address these accusations and stated that at a specific moment he wanted to carry out “an activity with a Portuguese orchestra,” that he asked his boss for permission and it was not granted. The president’s brother wanted to make it clear that he did not perform other tasks on his own, while he was part of the staff of the Badajoz Provincial Council: “I never had compatibility to do other tasks and I did not do them. I had no private activity,” he stressed.
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“I have nothing more to say,” the accused states when given the opportunity to expand his statement
He also denied that the hiring of his friend Luis Carrero by the Badajoz Provincial Council in 2023 was intended for Carrero to do his work because he was busy with external tasks, as the prosecution claims: “It was impossible for Luis to do my job, because he is not a musician and does not know how to conduct an orchestra,” Sánchez said after admitting that his friend did lend him a hand “on occasion.”
For his part, Gallardo, for whom the accusations have also raised the requested sentence to four years, denied having met with Pedro Sánchez to discuss David’s employment. He insisted that in the PSOE primaries in May 2017, he supported Sánchez’s rival, Susana Díaz, and stated that the idea of creating that position was not his, as the UCO claims, but rather “emerged from the Culture department”: “It’s all fiction,” he noted in relation to the evidence presented by the Civil Guard.
David Sánchez’s statement surprised by its brevity and its lack of references to his hiring as coordinator of conservatories at the Badajoz Provincial Council in 2017. David Sánchez only addressed two issues: his change of position in 2022 when he became director of the Office of Performing Arts and the hiring in 2023 of his friend Luis Carrero as coordinator of cross-border centers and activities.
The court allows David Sánchez’s interrogations during the investigation to be reproduced
At the end of the morning session, the lawyer for Manos Limpias requested that the interrogation of the president’s brother during the investigation phase be reproduced, as that statement was much more complete. The court accepted that request and David Sánchez’s statements before Judge Beatriz Biedma were broadcast again in the courtroom. Final reports will be presented on Monday and the trial will be adjourned for sentencing.
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