At Harvard, Pedro Sánchez drew a distinction between the corruption case involving former minister José Luis Ábalos and the investigations into his wife, Begoña Gómez, and his brother, David Sánchez. He said the family cases were not corruption scandals and blamed what he called a campaign by the right and far right to bring down his government.
That distinction drove a tough exchange with students. Sánchez acknowledged that corruption cases involving his party and government exist, and said his administration had responded quickly and effectively. But he refused to place the family investigations in the same category as the case linked to José Luis Ábalos.
On 21 September 2026, the court investigating Begoña Gómez opened oral proceedings against her over alleged influence peddling and misappropriation, RTVE reported. The opening of a trial does not itself establish guilt.
The prime minister also objected to what he called personal attacks. He said it was hard to accept that his wife and brother could be treated as guilty before the investigations had established that. He insisted they were not responsible for wrongdoing. Sánchez called the issue dirty politics and rejected the corruption label.
He placed the case involving David Sánchez in the same political frame. Reports on the exchange identified no new official ruling that changed the existing judicial context.
The setting sharpened the exchange. As the earlier forum showed, Harvard students focused less on the academic agenda than on disputes surrounding the Spanish government. RTVE and ARA English said the questions centered on corruption allegations and the family investigations, with Pegasus also raised.
Pegasus brought another challenge. A student asked whether the hacking of Sánchez's phone and those of several ministers, attributed to Morocco in the political debate, had affected Spain's change of position on Western Sahara. In its final report of May 2023, the European Parliament’s PEGA committee referred to Morocco as a possible source or client in some Pegasus episodes. That assessment was not an official legal finding that Morocco was responsible for the attack on Sánchez’s phone.
Sánchez confirmed that the Pegasus intrusion had happened, while stressing that its perpetrator was unknown. He said an investigation had been opened and a complaint filed. The prime minister added that his decisions could be criticised, but did not show dependence on another country or a failure to defend what he considers Spain's interests. Recent reports also said no perpetrator had been publicly identified.
He defended the government's position on Western Sahara by pointing to its support for a United Nations resolution establishing an autonomous region within Morocco. He also said Spain was the country most committed to funding humanitarian aid for the Sahrawi people. Sánchez said he did not need to answer what he called false news and challenged anyone with relevant information to make it public.
Sánchez left Harvard with two arguments. On corruption involving the PSOE and the government, he claimed a rapid institutional response. On the cases involving his family, he rejected the label and blamed the opposition's campaign.
That was the basic message of his intervention. Sánchez accepts scrutiny of his government but rejects using the investigations involving Begoña Gómez and David Sánchez as proof of corruption. His distinction was politically clear. The questions behind it remain part of the public dispute.
