Sánchez family pays €180,000 for daughter's private studies in Bristol

Sánchez and Begoña: €180,000 on private education, the same discourse that criticises it

According to data circulating on social media, Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez have paid 180,000 euros for their daughter Ainhoa's university studies at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The figure clashes head-on with the Spanish Prime Minister's recurring rhetoric defending public education as a pillar of equality.

But it is not the only case. The couple's second daughter, Carlota, 19, is studying a double degree in Business Administration and Marketing at ESIC University, a private Catholic institution in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). Belonging to the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, ESIC represents precisely the educational model Sánchez has criticised on multiple occasions: private, state-subsidised and religious.

The cost of consistency

If the Prime Minister's salary is public and does not stretch to that level of spending — as some analyses suggest — the question is inevitable: where does the money come from? The numbers do not add up with declared income that, while respectable, can hardly cover two top-end private tuition fees without resorting to extraordinary savings or additional income from Begoña Gómez, whose business activities have been under scrutiny.

What is on the table is not just a family expense. It is the gap between the official narrative — the Prime Minister who champions public schools as the best option — and the reality of his own educational choices. A gap that, in economic terms, has a very specific price: 180,000 euros, plus ESIC's tuition.

Beyond the rhetoric

The irony escapes no one. While Moncloa promotes an educational model that phases out state-subsidised private schools and restricts freedom of choice, Spain's first family chooses exactly the opposite for their children. This is no minor debate: if those who defend public education most fervently do not trust it for their own, what message does that send to the rest of the citizenry?

Carlota's case at ESIC adds another layer: the university is private and Catholic, two adjectives the Prime Minister has openly fought against. His daughters studying at institutions he himself has discredited is not just a personal contradiction; it is an argument against his own education policy.

All in all, the unanswered question is whether this spending is compatible with the austerity preached by the Government. Meanwhile, the 180,000 euros for Bristol and ESIC's tuition have already been paid. The rhetoric, however, remains up in the air.