The Begoña Gómez case goes to trial after two years of judicial decisions and political responses: can it end in elections?

In Spain, early general elections are called, through the ordinary route, by decision of the President of the Government, by means of the early dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or both Chambers, formalized by the King through a royal decree. Additionally, there is an automatic dissolution if the investiture fails. The procedure and its limits are detailed below.

1. Who can decide on early general elections?

The Constitution (art. 115) exclusively grants the President of the Government the power to propose the dissolution of the Cortes Generales and the calling of early general elections. It is not a decision of the Congress or the Senate, which do not vote on it.

The King does not decide politically; he is limited to issuing the royal decree of dissolution and calling, always acting on the proposal of the President of the Government and with his countersignature. Without countersignature, the act would be invalid.

2. Formal steps of early dissolution

• Deliberation of the Council of Ministers: the President proposes the early dissolution and the calling of elections. The Council of Ministers deliberates, as a prior formal requirement, although the ultimate power lies with the President.
• Proposal to the King: the President of the Government formally submits to the King the proposal to dissolve the Chambers (one, the other, or both) and hold general elections.
• Royal Decree of dissolution and calling: the King signs the royal decree, which:
  • Dissolves the Congress, the Senate, or both Chambers.
  • Calls general elections.
  • Sets the date of the elections.
  • Establishes the date for the constitution of the new Chambers.
  This decree must be countersigned by the President of the Government.
• Publication in the BOE: the decree is published in the Official State Gazette. Only from that publication do the dissolution and the calling produce legal effects (start of electoral deadlines, cessation of ordinary activity of the Chambers, etc.).

3. Deadlines and electoral calendar

The Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) sets the calendar:

• Between the calling and the holding of the elections, generally, 54 days must elapse.
• The electoral campaign usually lasts 15 days before the voting day, with a reflection day immediately prior to the election day.
• The decree also sets the date for the constitution of the new Chambers, which occurs within the period provided by the Constitution and the LOREG after the elections.

4. Limits and prohibitions on early dissolution

The President cannot dissolve the Cortes and call early elections at any time. The Constitution establishes clear limits:

• Motion of censure in process (art. 115.2 CE): while a motion of censure is registered and pending a vote in the Congress, the President of the Government cannot propose dissolution. This prevents evading direct parliamentary control.
• States of exception, siege, or alarm: during the validity of a state of exception or siege, early dissolution is not allowed. The aim is to preserve institutional stability in extraordinary situations. (In the case of the state of alarm, its fit is assessed according to applicable legislation and doctrine, but practice has been very cautious).
• Minimum period between dissolutions (art. 115.3 CE): a new dissolution cannot be proposed before one year has passed since the previous dissolution of the Cortes Generales. This limits abusive use of early calling.

5. Automatic dissolution due to investiture failure

Besides the “discretionary” early dissolution by the President, the Constitution provides for a case of automatic dissolution (art. 99.5 CE):

• If, after the first investiture vote, two months pass without any candidate obtaining the confidence of the Congress, the Cortes are automatically dissolved.
• In this case, the King dissolves the Congress and the Senate and calls elections by decree, but here the countersignature is not from the acting President of the Government, but from the Presidency of the Congress of Deputies.
• The subsequent electoral calendar (54 days until elections, etc.) also follows the LOREG.

6. Role of the Congress, the Senate, and the Government in this process

The Congress and the Senate:

• Do not vote on early dissolution or the calling of elections.
• They can, through a motion of censure, replace the President of the Government, which changes the subject who could, if applicable, use the power of dissolution.

The Government, through the President, is the protagonist of the political decision to bring forward elections; the King formalizes that decision through the decree, and the electoral regulations structure the calendar until the voting day and the constitution of the new Cortes.

In the Spanish criminal process, there is a clear distinction between the investigation phase and the trial phase, which translates into different powers for the investigating judge and the Provincial Court. This separation aims to guarantee the impartiality of the judging body, preventing the same person who directed the investigation from being the one who sentences.

Powers of the investigating judge

The investigating judge is the body that directs the investigation phase of the procedure (summary or preliminary proceedings). Their main functions are aimed at clarifying the facts and determining if there is sufficient evidence to bring someone to trial:

• Initiate the procedure: decide to open proceedings when there is news of a possible crime (complaint, police report, accusation).
• Direct the investigation: order the carrying out of actions to ascertain the facts and possible authorship (statements, expert reports, on-site inspections, reconstructions, etc.).
• Adopt personal precautionary measures: agree or deny judicial detention, provisional imprisonment, bail, restraining orders, and other measures restricting fundamental rights, always under the requirements of necessity and proportionality.
• Adopt real precautionary measures: seizures, bonds, and other measures to secure civil liabilities or the confiscation of crime-related effects.
• Authorize especially invasive actions: home entries and searches, telephone interceptions, access to communications or specially protected data, when the law requires it.
• Take statements from suspects and witnesses and, if applicable, order the taking of anticipatory evidence (for example, testimonies that may not be repeated at trial).
• Decide on the procedural situation of the suspect: formal imputation, declaration of rebellion, search and arrest, etc.
• Decide on dismissal or continuation: issue dismissal orders (free or provisional) when there is insufficient evidence, or agree to continue the procedure towards trial (processing order in summary, or opening of oral trial).

In summary, the investigating judge does not “convict or acquit,” but rather prepares the case, decides if there is a basis to try, and ensures that the investigation is conducted with guarantees and respect for fundamental rights.

Powers of the Provincial Court

The Provincial Court is a collegiate body (generally three magistrates) with powers mainly of trial and appeal in criminal matters:

• Try in first instance certain serious crimes, usually those whose legally foreseen penalty exceeds certain thresholds (crimes with high prison sentences, organized crime, etc.).
• Hold the oral trial in those cases: direct the hearing, admit or reject evidence, guarantee the principles of contradiction, orality, and immediacy.
• Evaluate the evidence presented at trial and issue a conviction or acquittal sentence, also setting civil liabilities derived from the crime.
• Resolve appeals against sentences issued by the Criminal Courts and other lower bodies in the province.
• Hear certain appeals against orders of the investigating judge in cases within its competence (for example, against some processing orders, dismissals, or precautionary measures).
• In some cases, participate in cases with a jury court, where a magistrate of the Provincial Court acts as president of the popular jury.

Therefore, the Provincial Court is mainly the body that judges and reviews, while the investigating judge is the one who investigates and prepares the case.

Essential differences between both

• Procedural function: the investigating judge directs the investigation; the Provincial Court directs and resolves the oral trial and often the appeal.
• Role regarding evidence: the investigator orders its collection and, if applicable, preservation; the Provincial Court is the one who definitively assesses it in the sentence.
• Structure: the investigating judge is a single-person body; the Provincial Court is collegiate, which adds a layer of deliberation and internal control.
• Impartiality and separation of functions: the one who investigates is not the one who judges. The investigating judge may have formed a reasonable suspicion; the Provincial Court enters the case “anew,” based on what it sees and hears at trial.
• Scope of their decisions: the investigator adopts provisional decisions that can be reviewed; the Provincial Court issues final rulings on guilt and imposes, if applicable, the penalty.

This architecture seeks to balance investigative effectiveness and guarantees, placing the investigating judge as guarantor of respect for rights during the inquiry phase and the Provincial Court as the body that, with distance and collegiality, decides ultimately on the facts and the applied law.

Begoña Gómez's background before the start of the judicial case affecting her today is structured around three main axes: her work in consulting and fundraising, her role in academic and training projects linked to the Complutense University of Madrid, and her subsequent responsibility at the IE Africa Center of the Instituto de Empresa. Her political projection derives mainly from her status as the wife of Pedro Sánchez, rather than from a partisan career with organic positions.

From an educational and professional standpoint, the sources consulted indicate that Gómez built her profile in the field of marketing and fundraising for organizations and social projects. The newspaper Demócrata describes that she developed much of her career at the consulting firm Inmark, where she worked in consulting, marketing, and fundraising aimed at third sector entities and social impact initiatives. The company appears as the main support of her experience prior to Pedro Sánchez's arrival at the Presidency of the Government.

From a strictly academic point of view, Demócrata highlights a controversial element: there is no record that Gómez holds a classic university degree or bachelor's degree, although she does have training and professional experience in marketing and fundraising. This circumstance becomes relevant because she later directed proprietary degrees and an extraordinary chair at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), an area where it is common—although not always legally required—to have formal higher education. The university itself and the Prosecutor's Office, according to the newspaper, have defended that for the functions she performed in proprietary degrees and the chair, a complete university degree was not legally essential.

Begoña Gómez's relationship with the Complutense University began, according to sources cited by Demócrata, between 2012 and 2014, that is, before Sánchez came to La Moncloa, when he was a PSOE deputy and later party secretary general. In that first stage, she began collaborating with the UCM in the field of training in fundraising and social transformation. A former vice-rector of the Complutense, Juan Carlos Doadrio, declared—also reported by Demócrata—that the university verified her previous trajectory, positively valued a master's degree she had already taught, and took into account her relationships with companies as part of her professional profile.

Over time, Gómez went on to co-direct various proprietary degrees focused on fundraising and social entrepreneurship, and in October 2020 she assumed the direction of the Extraordinary Chair of Competitive Social Transformation at the UCM, created through a public-private collaboration agreement. Available information emphasizes that these were proprietary degrees and extraordinary activities, not official master's degrees, and that her role combined academic orientation with links to the business sector and social innovation projects.

Parallel to her collaboration with the Complutense, her profile took a leap when Pedro Sánchez became President in 2018. That year, according to Demócrata, Gómez requested a leave of absence from Inmark arguing to avoid conflicts of interest upon becoming the spouse of the head of the Executive. However, she did not abandon professional activity: that same year she was hired by the Instituto de Empresa (IE) to direct the IE Africa Center, a newly created center aimed at strengthening economic, business, and innovation relations with the African continent.

At the helm of the IE Africa Center, approximately between 2018 and 2022, Gómez participated in business meetings, promoted social impact programs, and maintained contacts with companies interested in projects linked to Africa. Demócrata mentions that, in that context, she maintained professional relations with companies that collaborated with the center's activities and even participated in international forums, such as a World Tourism Organization event in Saint Petersburg in 2019, where she coincided with business representatives from the tourism sector.

From the perspective of her public and political projection, before the judicial case broke out, her presence in the institutionalized political space was indirect. There are no records of relevant militant positions or organic or public responsibilities in the PSOE; her role is more linked to civil society, executive training, and consulting for social and business projects. Her political visibility mainly comes from being the wife of the PSOE secretary general and, later, the president of the Government, which places her in the media spotlight at party and government events, while maintaining her professional activity in consulting, university, and business school.

In summary, before the start of the judicial procedure in 2024, Begoña Gómez's trajectory combines a career in consulting and social marketing (Inmark), the direction of academic programs and an extraordinary chair at the Complutense University focused on fundraising and social transformation, and the direction of the IE Africa Center at the Instituto de Empresa, with political exposure derived from her position in the president's environment rather than from an organic career within the PSOE.