Spain's PM won't quit over scandals and confirms plan to tackle corruption

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday announced an anti-corruption plan designed with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in a bid to salvage confidence in his scandal-hit government.

The implication of two former Socialist heavyweights and close Sánchez allies in a graft scandal has rocked the minority leftist coalition and thrown its viability into doubt.

"I will not throw in the towel and we will continue," Sánchez told parliament, conceding that he had considered resigning over the affair involving two former Socialist heavyweights.

The crisis is particularly sensitive for a leader who came to power in 2018 vowing to clean up Spanish politics after the rival conservative Popular Party (PP) was convicted in its own graft affair.

EXPLAINED: The five corruption probes troubling Spain's PM

Sánchez announced a 15-point plan drawn up with the Paris-based OECD's division for anti-corruption and integrity in government during an address to parliament.

READ MORE: Whistle-blowers and audits: How Spain's PM vows to stamp out corruption

They include the creation of an independent public integrity agency to prevent, supervise and prosecute corruption, with Sánchez saying existing mechanisms have "generated inefficiencies and vacuums of coordination".

Enhanced data analysis aided by artificial intelligence will scan for "vulnerabilities" in public tenders, said Sánchez, after his former right-hand men were suspected of receiving kickbacks in the improper awarding of such contracts.

Top officials would also undergo "random and annual wealth checks" during their time in the job, while parties and foundations receiving public funds above €50,000 ($58,500) would be obliged to face external audits.

Whistle-blowers would receive greater protection, specialised sections in courts would be created and the criminal code reformed to harshen punishments for offences against the public administration, added Sánchez.

A bombshell police report into the scandal released last month implicated ex-transport minister José Luis Ábalos and former top Socialist official Santos Cerdán, both key figures in Sánchez's rise to power.

Sánchez revealed he had considered resigning over the affair, apologising but defying the opposition by vowing not to "throw in the towel" and call early elections.

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Government wobbles

Since the police report, Cerdán has relinquished his powerful post as Socialist organisation secretary and as an MP, while the party definitively expelled Ábalos.

The array of far-left and regional separatist parties propping up the government had demanded firm anti-corruption measures as the price for their continued support.

Sánchez described the plan as "the biggest boost" to the fight against corruption in Spain "in recent decades".

But PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo dismissed Sánchez's explanations and reform efforts, saying the Socialists had "operated like a criminal organisation" for years.

"We don't know where your direct responsibility begins and where it ends... How will you get us out of this nightmare if you got us into it?" he replied to Sánchez, demanding elections.

Separate investigations are underway against Sánchez's wife, brother and Socialist-appointed top public prosecutor, ratcheting up the pressure on one of Europe's longest-serving leftist leaders.