Spain: PM Sanchez suspends public duties as wife probed

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will suspend public duties until next week to decide whether he wants to continue leading the government after a court launched a probe of his wife.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday that he was considering the possibility of resigning after a court opened a fraud investigation into his wife.

"I need to pause and think," Sanchez in a letter shared on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, announcing that he was suspending his public duties until Monday, by which time he will have made a decision.

"I urgently need an answer to the question of whether ... I should continue to lead the government or renounce this honor," he wrote.

Why is Pedro Sanchez' wife being investigated?

The announcement came after a Spanish court said earlier on Wednesday that it was launching a preliminary investigation into whether Begona Gomez had abused her position as the Prime Minister's spouse to allegedly secure sponsors for a university master's degree course that she ran.