Corruption: That’s All (Gabriel Albiac in El Debate)

Gabriel Albiac argues in **El Debate** that corruption is embedded in the 1978 Constitution and that Pedro Sánchez dissolved parliament to evade judicial scrutiny. The article reviews cases surrounding the government, concluding that only judicial action has contained corruption.

Columnist **Gabriel Albiac** published the article “Corruption: That’s All” on **October 7, 2026**, arguing that corruption is not a political accident but the system’s starting point. The 1978 Constitution, he claims, created conditions for inevitable party financing.

## Party Financing and Reclassified Land

Albiac asks how legalised parties funded themselves after decades of prohibition. He dismisses member dues and argues developers bribed officials for land reclassification. This created a network of hidden money flows where officials profited proportionally to their incivil risk, explaining the unexplained lifestyles of many transition-era politicians.

The system worked discreetly until it reached its limit, necessitating a regime change.

## From Sabiniano Gómez’s Saunas to Necrosis

The article marks a turning point at the rise to power from Sabiniano Gómez’s saunas, after which corruption degenerated into what Albiac calls necrosis. He states that only judicial action has contained it.

Albiac lists cases judges have uncovered: the president’s deputy and brother were convicted; his vvife and right-hand man face trial; a former attorney general bent the law; his mentor is suspected of Venezuelan money laundering; and his envoys negotiated with traffickers to eliminate a judge.

No specific case numbers or dates are provided, only the claim that judges know all this.

## Dissolved Parliament and Judicial Control

Albiac asserts **Pedro Sánchez** dissolved parliament because he is one step from falling to judges and needs a broader majority to neutralise them.

If achieved, he writes, this will end the separation of powers and, thus, democracy itself.

The article ends by mocking what he calls the elegies of poor, evicted elderly women, stating that such types show no pity for them.

## The Machiavellian Framework

Albiac opens with a preamble on **Niccolò Machiavelli**. In **1513**, after surviving torture in the Bargello dungeons for conspiracy against the **Medici**, the Florentine chancellor retired to the countryside to read **Livy**. From this, Albiac says, came the idea that republics, customs, and men change, but decomposition persists as the essence of political time.

This thread, he argues, renders any sarracena evaluation of politicians futile, given the similarity between virtue and vice. He concludes that Machiavelli would find no purer example of his thesis than current Spain.

The article is an opinion column. Claims about convictions and negotiations with traffickers lack verifiable judicial references. Readers should consult official judicial resolutions and sources.