The father-in-law's sauna business that Feijóo threw at Sánchez

"What brothels did you live in?" The question was posed by the Spanish opposition leader to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during an extraordinary plenary session on Wednesday, which was intended to explain the executive branch's corruption case within the PSOE (Socialist Party) , and which was marked by an exchange of accusations between the two. "You were a profitable participant in the abominable business of prostitution, and now you want to make your biography illegal?" criticized Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to applause from his party, prompting the Socialist caucus to accuse the Popular Party of crossing a red line by attacking the PSOE's secretary general on a personal and family level. But what exactly was Feijóo referring to?

The PP leader, who shared the video of the moment on the social network X, alluded to the sauna business attributed to Pedro Sánchez's father-in-law, Sabiniano Gómez, who died last year. The first more concrete mention of "sex saunas" appears in a 2021 investigation by the Spanish newspaper ABC , written by Javier Chicote. At the center is a figure who has caused much ink to flow in Spain: José Manuel Villarejo. The former police officer made his fortune in the private sector, spied on and blackmailed politicians and businesspeople for decades, interviewed a former lover of King Emeritus Juan Carlos through a false warrant, and was arrested in November 2017 for corruption, organized crime, and bribery.

Sánchez was a participant, for profit, in the abominable prostitution business. pic.twitter.com/CgkKSmcRXU

— Alberto Núñez Feijoo (@NunezFeijoo) July 9, 2025

During a police operation investigating Villarejo, 13 diaries were seized, and one of them contained the entry that would later break the news about the sauna business. The former police officer recounted a lunch in Madrid that brought together two police officers (later revealed as Commissioners Enrique García Castaño and Enrique Barón) and Sánchez's father-in-law, the day after the politician won the internal elections for the PSOE leadership , at a time when the party was in opposition.

"On the Monday following Pedro Sánchez's election victory, BIG and GB met for lunch with their father-in-law, Sabiniano Gómez Serrano, brother of Conrado and Enrique, owners of several sex saunas. Two for homosexuals on San Bernardo Street and one for heterosexuals on the side of Princesa Street," read the handwritten note, according to ABC. Several sources interviewed by the newspaper later confirmed that the father-in-law had once dedicated himself to this business, but by the time of the lunch, he had long since left it in the hands of his brothers.

Almost a year after the investigation, in July 2022, ABC published a new article about the business dealings of the father of Begoña Gómez , married to Sánchez since 2006, who is currently under investigation for corruption and influence peddling . "José Manuel Villarejo informed Mariano Rajoy's government about Pedro Sánchez's father-in-law's prostitution business so they could 'kill him politically,'" the article read.

According to the Spanish newspaper, shortly after Sánchez won the 2014 internal elections, Villarejo met with the Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez. He wanted to tell him that he was retiring, but during the conversation, he told him about the sauna business, which Villarejo steadfastly assured him he hadn't told "anyone." "They [Sánchez's father-in-law and brothers] run saunas for prostitutes," he said, explaining that he knew because his father-in-law and brothers were friends with police officers who frequented the saunas.

The conversation between the two is known because the former police officer recorded it, as was his habit, without Martínez's knowledge, who, surprised, interrupts: "And Sánchez knows for sure, he knows perfectly well what his father-in-law does..." "Yes," Villarejo, who describes the information as a "weak point" of the PSOE leader and tells the Secretary of State for Security that the then PP government, led by Mariano Rajoy, could use it to its advantage.

"This is deadly, deadly. When necessary... it's a matter that should only be discussed with the president and his number one," Villarejo said in the nearly two-hour recording, according to ABC. Martínez agrees that it would be Sánchez's political death: "That would kill anyone politically, someone who goes around waving that feminist flag and whatever." The Secretary of State adds that they must first learn everything about the business, with the police officer agreeing and stating that this should be done in secret.

Sources close to the then-leaders of the Ministry of Internal Administration assured ABC, however, that "absolutely nothing was done" with the information provided by Villarejo. The matter seemed to have been forgotten until Feijóo's recent statements.

Long before Sánchez was his son-in-law and he was elected president of the Spanish government, Sabiniano Gómez entered the business world. It was the 1980s, and his first move was to purchase the Cine Mundial on Alcalá Street in Madrid, which he converted into an events venue, reports El Mundo . Later, on San Bernardo Street, he opened the business that would put his and Sánchez's names in the press: the Adán sauna. With his brother, Enrique, he also purchased an adjoining space, which they converted into 14 rooms for rent.

The business grew, and the Azul sauna, Princesa sauna, and Mayka sauna followed, the Spanish newspaper reports, adding that another of Sabiniano's brothers, Conrado, ran a brothel—the Sauna Bar brothel, later renamed Roses Girls. According to El Mundo, in 2006, the year Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez married, Sabiniano "discreetly" left the business, and Enrique became "the face" of the chain. In 2013, the business ceased to be owned by the Gómez brothers and passed into the hands of Ángel Prieto Paz.

The issue has now gained momentum with Feijóo's accusation that Sánchez benefited from his father-in-law's business dealings, something not covered in the ABC investigation, which broke the story. It is known that the PSOE leader, before moving to the Moncloa Palace, lived with his wife in a house purchased by his father-in-law in Pozuelo de Alarcón, as Sabiniano Gómez confirmed to OK Diario , without detailing when he made the purchase or what funds he used. In an article published this Thursday, following the PP leader's statements, El Mundo notes that the couple receives around two thousand euros from the rental of the residence .