Begoña Gómez

María Begoña Gómez Fernández (born 29 January 1975) is a Spanish marketing expert and wife of Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, the Prime Minister of Spain. Gómez was director of business outsourcing in 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.

Early life and career
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. As a young woman, Gómez moved to Madrid, where she graduated in marketing from the Higher School of Commercial Engineers, a private entity that operated as an academy, called M&B School of Marketing and Business, created in 1989, which merged into the International School of Business Management (ESEM). She indicated in her curriculum vitae that she obtained a bachelor degree in marketing from ESIC University, a business school and prestigious university, a fact that attracted attention and controversy; she defended it as a degree. She then focused on postgraduate education and graduated twice, one in business management and another in business administration, relations, and data management.

Gómez began her career at the Atenea Business Center, of which she was director from 1996 to 1999. In 2000, she started working for the Inmark Group; she worked there and was director of business outsourcing for 18 years and 3 months until her husband became Prime Minister of Spain in 2018. 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.

During her career, Gómez worked at the Complutense University of Madrid for 12 years and 6 months, holding various positions, such as director of the University Chair of Competitive Social Transformation, co-director of the Master in Competitive Social Transformation, and co-director of the fundraising title for the third sector (UCM and AEFR). 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. 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. She did not hold any political office and maintained a low profile.

Investigation into influence trafficking
On 24 April 2024, a judge opened an investigation into Gómez for possible influence trafficking and corruption following a complaint by Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands in English (referencing the 1990s Italian corruption investigative pool Mani pulite), an obscure anti-corruption non-governmental organization with links to the far right. Led by Miguel Bernad (activist), formerly the secretary general of the far-right National Front, it considers itself a trade union but its main activity is acting as a platform pursuing politically-motivated legal cases, many of them linked to right-wing causes that unsuccessfully targeted left-wing politicians.

Gómez had signed several letters of recommendation for companies that ended up receiving state aid or contracts. As of June 2024, Gómez was not charged on any corruption-related crime, and the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard found no evidence that she or Sanchez himself interceded in favour of these companies. Although she did not commit any act punishable by law, 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.

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. The attack on his wife caused Sanchez to take a five-day recess and consider resignation, 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." 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." 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".

Personal life
Gómez married Sánchez in 2006. They were married at the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela racecourse in Madrid, in a ceremony officiated by PSOE politician Trinidad Jiménez. They have two daughters, Carlota (born 2005) and Ainhoa (born 2007). 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. On 2 May 2020, Sánchez confirmed Gómez's recovery.