The Spanish Left’s Moral Megaphone — and Its Rotten Echo Chamber

Written By Sebastian Sauerborn

Spain is one of the most popular destinations among my clients — and for good reason.

The weather is warm, the cost of living (still) reasonable, and the lifestyle seductive. Add to that a special tax regime, the so-called “Beckham Law,” and you have a magnet for entrepreneurs, consultants, and digital professionals seeking a sunny base with relatively light taxation.

Under the Beckham Law, named after footballer David Beckham, foreigners moving to Spain can opt to be taxed as non-residents for up to six years. That means:

  • A flat income tax rate of 24% on Spanish-sourced earnings (instead of the steep progressive rates up to 47%).

  • No tax at all on most foreign income — including dividends, capital gains, and interest earned abroad.

  • Simplified filing and no wealth tax on foreign assets during the regime.

It sounds perfect — and on paper, it is.

But here’s the problem: paper isn’t power.

Many underestimate how erratic Spanish bureaucracy can be, how aggressive the tax authorities are once they’ve set their sights on you, and how deeply politicized the entire system has become. Spain is a country where tax offices, courts, and even ministries are not merely inefficient — they are often captured by party cronies whose main qualification is loyalty, not competence.

That’s why I’m writing this piece. Because the moral decay of Spain’s political class isn’t just a philosophical issue — it directly affects the lives of my clients and thousands of professionals who move there in good faith, believing in a European democracy that plays fair.

The truth is uglier. The same politicians who moralize about “social justice” and “solidarity” are busy filling their pockets, appointing their cousins, and weaponizing the bureaucracy against those who succeed.

The Spanish Left — which constantly rails against “the rich” and “the privileged” — has itself become the most privileged caste in the country.

They hide behind ethics while indulging in excess.

They proclaim virtue while practicing vice.

That is the hypocrisy I want to expose.

Who Am I Talking About?

The Spanish Left — especially the ruling PSOE under Pedro Sánchez — loves to play moral guardian.

They rail against “the rich,” “neoliberals,” and “corrupt elites.” They posture as champions of el pueblo, the small guy who just wants fairness and dignity.

But scratch beneath the moral varnish, and you find the same stench of corruption, nepotism, and greed that they pretend to fight.

The difference? They do it while lecturing others about ethics.

Today, Spain’s socialist government faces not one, not two, but a wave of scandals so corrosive that even its allies can no longer defend it. Behind the mask of moral outrage, the so-called “friends of the people” look more like what they are — money-hungry parasites feeding off the very system they condemn.

The Gospel of Equality — Preached by Millionaires

The PSOE has built its image on contrast: “We are not the corrupt conservatives of the Partido Popular. We are the party of decency.”

That narrative helped Sánchez rise.

But moral superiority is a fragile throne. Once the dirt sticks — Delcygate, Caso Koldo, Cerdán’s kickbacks, COVID contract graft — it’s impossible to keep preaching virtue.

The Left’s sermons about “social justice” ring hollow when the same ministers who denounce “privilege” are signing secret contracts, accepting luxury villas, and shielding each other from prosecution.

As one Reddit user put it bluntly:

“PP and PSOE know they can bear a corruption scandal. They have a stable voting base. Even if they start clean, after a few years in power they start doing the same things.”

That is Spain’s tragedy — moral rot disguised as compassion.

The Ábalos–Koldo Swindle: When ‘Solidarity’ Turned into Self-Enrichment

Few scandals capture the Left’s hypocrisy better than the Koldo Case — also known as the Ábalos Case.

José Luis Ábalos, Sánchez’s close ally and former Transport Minister, was a pillar of the socialist establishment. But his aide, Koldo García Izaguirre, is accused of organizing a massive COVID-era contract racket through a firm called Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas (SGAE).

The accusations include bribes, real estate gifts, and hidden wealth — exactly the kind of capitalist excess the Left claims to despise.

According to Reuters, Spanish judges have already summoned top party figures, including Santos Cerdán, to testify over kickbacks in public works contracts. Another report confirmed Cerdán was remanded to jail without bail in June 2025 for graft.

“If this is blackmail, they have struck rock bottom,” a government insider told El País — an unintentionally honest line that might as well describe the entire government.

Because if your own ministers are now blackmailing each other with hidden recordings, you have already lost moral authority.

Delcygate — The Shadow from Caracas

The Koldo case doesn’t stand alone. Its roots reach back to Delcygate — the scandal in which Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, landed in Madrid despite being banned from EU territory.

She met, secretly, with none other than José Luis Ábalos in a closed-off airport zone.

Why was she there? What was discussed? Why was she allowed to enter EU soil?

The government’s story changed four times in a week. First denial, then minimization, then “a chance encounter.”

Many Spaniards believe Delcygate was the moment that revealed something rotten at the heart of Sánchez’s network — a mix of ideological sympathy and potential financial interests connected to Venezuelan oil and money laundering.

No, Sánchez has not been proven personally corrupt. But he protected those who were. And that’s enough to destroy the “ethical socialist” façade.

“Soooooooooorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”

When Sánchez finally apologized for the scandals surrounding his top aides, the internet mocked him mercilessly.

A viral Reddit thread titled “Spain’s Pedro Sánchez sorry after top aide resigns” was flooded with sarcasm:

“Soooooooooorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”
“These apologies are like soap bubbles — pretty, useless, and gone in a second.”

Even sympathetic Spaniards rolled their eyes. The apologies meant nothing. They were PR.

The moral voice of the Spanish Left — the voice that used to thunder about decency and equality — now sounded hollow, tired, and fake.

The Blackout That Symbolized a Nation

Then came the April 2025 blackout — a massive failure that left most of Spain and Portugal in darkness.

Officially, it was a “voltage surge.” But the incident became a symbol of what many Spaniards already believe:
that Spain’s critical infrastructure is run by cronies, not professionals.

When the lights went out, people didn’t just curse the grid — they cursed political appointments, inept management, and the party networks that reward loyalty over competence.

No one was surprised. In Spain, “enchufes” — jobs for friends and cousins — have become so normalized that failure itself now looks partisan.

As one engineer told El Mundo, “The real blackout isn’t in the grid. It’s in the institutions.”

And that sums it up. When your best jobs go to party loyalists, sooner or later, something burns.

Cronyism as a Way of Life

The Spanish word enchufismo perfectly captures the disease: the practice of plugging your people into every institution, whether they’re qualified or not.

Public companies, universities, utilities — all filled with loyalists who owe their positions not to merit but to party affiliation.

It’s a problem across Europe, but in Spain, it’s systemic.
Even the Left, once the voice of reform, has embraced it with gusto.

Every new appointment, every quiet favor, every “temporary advisory contract” erodes the state’s integrity.
And when the electricity fails, or hospitals mismanage funds, or ministries overspend by billions, citizens no longer ask “how.” They ask “who’s cousin was it this time?”

Hypocrisy and Class Warfare

What makes this hypocrisy unbearable is that the same politicians who wallow in privilege are the ones who lecture others about “social conscience.”

They attack the self-employed, demonize entrepreneurs, and brand successful citizens as “greedy” — while living off taxpayer money, hoarding perks, and padding their pensions with public funds.

The Spanish Left doesn’t hate wealth — it hates independent wealth.

It despises those who earn without permission, who think without party approval, who thrive outside the state’s grip.

For them, the ideal citizen is dependent — grateful, obedient, easy to mobilize with slogans about “rights” and “solidarity.”

That’s not socialism. That’s feudalism with hashtags.

How the Mask Slipped

In April 2025, Sánchez staged what AP News called a “political psychodrama” — announcing he might resign after his wife became the target of a judicial probe, then dramatically “deciding to stay” days later.

It was pure theatre: the narcissist as victim.

He turned legitimate scrutiny into a personal tragedy.

That moment crystallized everything wrong with Spain’s ruling elite.

They claim persecution whenever their own corruption is exposed. They rewrite every scandal as a morality play, starring themselves as martyrs.

But the public has stopped believing it.

Even the usually sympathetic El País has begun to publish critical pieces.
Even The Guardian — once an ally of Europe’s progressive image — wrote:

“New corruption scandal, same old story. Why Spanish politics keeps failing to clean up its act.”

When even your friends stop defending you, the show is over.

The Reddit Verdict — and It’s Brutal

A few comments from r/Europe threads this summer capture the national mood better than any columnist:

“Every week we have some new struggle from corrupt politicians and a new smokescreen.”
“They steal, they apologise, and we pay.”
“Spain deserves better, but we’re too tired to care anymore.”

That exhaustion — that grim acceptance — is perhaps the greatest victory of corruption.
It breeds apathy. It convinces people that decency is impossible, that “they’re all the same.”

And in that vacuum, the real parasites thrive.

The End of Moral Superiority

Corruption scandals are devastating for any government.

But for the Spanish Left, they are existential.

Because the PSOE doesn’t just sell policies — it sells morality.

Its entire brand is built on being “better than the right.” Cleaner, kinder, more humane.

Once that moral superiority crumbles, there’s nothing left but rhetoric.

You cannot preach compassion while enriching your friends.

You cannot call others greedy when your ministers are under investigation for bribery.

You cannot call yourself “progressive” when your progress leads straight to your own pocket.

Reform or Rot

There is only one way out: radical transparency, real accountability, and moral humility.

If the Left wants to survive, it must stop pretending to be saintly. It must start acting like it serves someone other than itself.

Because right now, the Spanish Left has become the very monster it once promised to slay — a bureaucratic, self-righteous machine that produces slogans instead of justice.

And as long as it continues to rail against “the successful” while stuffing its own coffers, the moral megaphone it loves to wield will echo back only one sound: shame.

Sources & References

Sebastian Sauerborn
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