Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has requested her free acquittal in the case for which she must be tried by a popular jury for co-directorship of a chair at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
In his defense brief, to which La Vanguardia has had access, his new lawyer denies that Gómez took advantage of “his marital relationship” with the head of the Executive to obtain a university professorship, and that he obtained financial benefit. She defends that she already had a professional career and that, contrary to the thesis of the investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado, she did not use the UCM to promote her career but decided to take a step back to avoid a conflict of interest in the company she worked for and that could access public contracts.
Furthermore, remember that Gómez, prior to her husband's appointment, had already been collaborating with the UCM. Specifically, she served as co-director of the Fundraising Technician continuing training diploma from 2012 to 2014. Subsequently, she was co-director of the Master's Degree in Public and Private Fundraising Management in Non-Profit Organizations from 2014 to 2024.
In the writing, one of the points on which Peinado based his investigation is clarified, which was that Gómez was co-directing a master's degree without having the appropriate degree. His lawyer explains that the exceptional thing about the extraordinary professorships is their non-strictly academic purpose: the raising of funds that allow the university to develop projects of social interest and that could not be financed with its budget.
"For this reason, the director of the extraordinary chair does not necessarily have to be linked to the university and does not have to be in possession of a higher academic qualification. Chair director, on the one hand, and professor, on the other hand, are not synonymous nor can they be equated," he emphasizes.
Therefore, in his defense he argues that in no case is a higher university degree required at the UCM to direct the extraordinary professorships or to teach in its own degrees, "since they are not official degrees."
He also discards the accusation that Gómez influenced or exerted moral pressure on the rector or vice-rector of the University "or any other authority or official, taking advantage of his marital relationship to achieve the creation of the extraordinary Chair that he directed."
Thus, he defends that the extraordinary professorship has not brought “any economic benefit” to Sánchez's wife because she has performed her duties “free of charge for four years.” Nor did he enrich himself, he says, with the digital platform on which the software financed by private companies for the chair was registered.
And regarding the last point of the accusation, the use of the advisor paid by the Presidency, for his private affairs, the defense also gives an explanation. On the one hand, it clarifies that there are no written rules on this issue, but points out that Gómez, like all the wives of the presidents of the Government of our democracy, carries out institutional functions free of charge at the national and international level in support of the presidency of the Government.
This implies, the lawyer indicates, compliance with certain residence and security obligations that limit his professional activity and his private life. "Begoña must reside in the La Moncloa complex, the official residence of the President of the Government and his family, which determines the existence of personnel dedicated to the direct service of the president's family in La Moncloa, but also some public employees must participate in private activities outside the premises, protecting and supporting the president's wife: essentially the security and logistics services."
Thus, he emphasizes that since the arrival of democracy (more than 50 years ago) it has been customary for the president's spouses to necessarily have temporary support personnel. As it is a position of trust, its appointment is direct and in many cases - such as that of Cristina Álvarez - the relationship with the president's wife is usually one of prior friendship.
"Her general function is to support all activities that have traditionally been carried out by the president's spouse, both of an institutional nature, as well as of a private or professional nature. These latter activities of the wife of the President of the Government are limited by those of an institutional nature, despite the fact that she has the right to work, so Álvarez provides her with the necessary help to coordinate, organize and manage all her functions, not only institutional, but also family, private and professional," concludes the lawyer.
