| Birth Name: | María Begoña Gómez Fernández |
| Birth Date: | 29 January 1975[1] |
| Birth Place: | Bilbao, Spain |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Marketing expert |
María Begoña Gómez Fernández (born 29 January 1975)[1] is a Spanish marketing executive and wife of Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain. Gómez was director of business outsourcing for the Inmark Group until her husband became Prime Minister of Spain in 2018. From 2018 to 2022, she was executive director of the Africa Center of the Institute of Enterprise. Since 2020, she has been the extraordinary Chair of Competitive Social Transformation of the Complutense University of Madrid, without having any kind of university studies.
Gómez was born in Bilbao. Her father is Sabiniano Gómez Serrano, and she has one brother, Miguel Gómez Fernández. She spent most of her childhood in Valderas, in the province of León, where she moved not long after her birth.[2] As a young woman, Gómez moved to Madrid to study. Although she indicated in her curriculum vitae that she obtained a bachelor's degree in marketing from ESIC University, a private business and marketing school,[3] a journalistic investigation by Okdiario revealed, with documentary evidence and statements by fellow students and the school's director, that she actually followed a marketing programme at M&B School of Marketing and Business, a private entity, and that what she obtained was a diploma, not a degree with official value, so her level of studies is a baccalaureate.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Subsequently, she took two courses in tertiary education at a non-degree level: one in nusiness management and another in business administration, relations, and data management.[3]
Gómez began her career at the Atenea Business Center, of which she was director from 1996 to 1999.[3] In 2000, she started working for the Inmark Group; she worked there and was director of business outsourcing for 18 years until her husband became Prime Minister of Spain in 2018.[9] She was also strategy consultant and team training for Spain and Portugal from 1999 to 2018, professor in the Master in Marketing and Commercial Management at EAE Business School from 2009 to 2010, and coordinating partner of the Business Social Transformation WAS working group since 2018.[3]
Following Sanchez' appointment as prime minister, Gómez obtained a University Chair in Competitive Social Transformation and co-director of a new the Master in Competitive Social Transformation, and co-director of the fundraising title for the third sector (UCM and AEFR).[3] She was also a partner of the Spanish Fundraising Association and executive director of the IE Africa Center and was executive director of the Africa Center of the Institute of Enterprise from 2018 to 2022.[3] In 2020, she became the extraordinary Chair of Competitive Social Transformation of the Complutense University of Madrid, a position that she maintained into 2024 alongside her co-director role and teacher of the master's degree.[3] She did not hold any political office and maintained a low profile.[3] [10]
On 24 April 2024, a judge opened an investigation into Gómez for possible influence trafficking and corruption following a complaint by a number of anti-graft organizations, including Manos Limpias,[11] or Clean Hands in English (referencing the 1990s Italian corruption investigative pool Mani pulite),[12] [13] an anti-corruption non-governmental organization.[13] [14] Led by, formerly the secretary general of the far-right National Front,[15] it considers itself a trade union but its main activity is acting as a platform pursuing politically-motivated legal cases; for example, they brought the popular accusation against Iñaki Urdangarín and his wife the daughter of the King of Spain, which led to the conviction of the former for corruption offences.[16]
Gómez had signed several letters of recommendation for companies that ended up receiving state aid or contracts.[17] The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard found no evidence that she or Sanchez himself interceded in favour of these companies,[18] [19] but some considered her behavior to be ethically doubtful; unlike countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain has no code of ethics defining activities of the relatives of public officials.[17]
At a rally of the Spanish far-right party Vox in Madrid on 19 May 2024, the incumbent Argentinian president Javier Milei called Gómez corrupt, which caused a diplomatic crisis with Argentina, and the Spanish ambassador demanded apologies.[17] The attack on his wife caused Sanchez to take a five-day recess and consider resignation,[20] which he ultimately did not do, writing: "We are absolutely calm. There is nothing behind these accusations, only a cheap hoax created by far-right groups."[10] The education minister and government spokesperson Pilar Alegría expressed surprise at the fact the news of the investigation came out ahead of the 2024 European Parliament election in Spain and stated: "We know that there is absolutely nothing here. What we have here is a mudslinging campaign by the right and the far right."[10] [14] Gómez is scheduled to testify before a Madrid court on 5 July 2024 as "an investigated party" about "the alleged offences of corruption in the private sector and influence peddling".[13] [21] [22]
On 10 June, the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which rejected Vox's private accusation because these are not allowed in this type of procedure, demanded that the court assume part of the investigation of the case for alleged corruption, alleging that European funds were involved.[23]
The Complutense University sent the court a report in which it found indications that Begoña Gómez could have committed a crime of misappropriation by having appropriated software financed by the University itself, and by having issued contracts and expenses on behalf of the University without being authorized to do so. The report also indicated the lack of cooperation on the part of the investigated.[24]
On 15 July, Juan Carlos Barrabés, a Spanish businessman linked to Begoña Gomez, testified as a witness. He claimed to have met up to eight times with Gómez at the Moncloa Palace, and on at least two occasions with President Pedro Sánchez present.[25] On July 19, 2024, Gómez refused to testify before Judge Peinado. In the subsequent statement of the vice-rectors of the Complutense University, they stated that they had warned Begoña Gómez that she could not put the software financed by the Complutense University in her name. Likewise, the vice-rector Juan Carlos Doadrio declared that it was the rector Joaquín Goyache who directly ordered him to create the chair of Gómez.[26]
On 22 July, the judge summoned President Pedro Sánchez to testify as a witness.[27] Pedro Sánchez refused to testify before the judge, anticipating a possible indictment.[28] [29] Vox has denounced Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Justice for using the State Attorney's Office against the judge investigating his wife.[30]
On 29 October, the judge charged Gómez with alleged crimes of misappropriation and professional trespassing for supposedly having appropriated the software of the chair that was paid for by the Complutense University. [31]
Gómez married Sánchez in 2006, at the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela racecourse in Madrid, in a ceremony officiated by PSOE politician Trinidad Jiménez.[32] They have two daughters, Carlota (born 2005) and Ainhoa (born 2007).[33] Gómez and several government politicians were early positive cases in the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain after they had attended an International Women's Day march on 8 March 2020. That event was criticized for going ahead while the virus was spreading.[34] [35] On 2 May 2020, Sánchez confirmed Gómez's recovery.[36]