Soledad Fernández is preparing to depart Spain’s Tax Agency amid escalating tensions regarding leadership changes at the institution and the ongoing controversy linked to the Zapatero case.
Spain’s Tax Agency is facing a major reshuffle in its leadership following the end of the income tax campaign. The agency’s director general, Soledad Fernández Doctor, will soon step down after four years at the helm of the body responsible for combating tax fraud.
The move also affects other senior officials within the agency, amid internal tension and conflicting accounts over the true scale of the crisis. The Finance Ministry insists that Fernández’s departure is not the result of a sudden resignation, but rather a replacement request made months ago and postponed until the end of the income tax campaign to avoid disrupting the agency during one of its busiest periods.
However, the change comes at an especially delicate moment for the Tax Agency. In recent days, the judge overseeing the Plus Ultra case offered the Finance Ministry the opportunity to appear in the proceedings as a potential injured party over jewellery seized by the National Police from the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, valued at €1.3 million. The AEAT’s decision on whether or not to join the case has become one of the main political flashpoints surrounding the matter.
A few days ago, the judge in the Plus Ultra case invited the Finance Ministry to appear as a “potential injured party” over the jewellery seized by the National Police from Zapatero’s office. This is a key development because, according to the case’s framing, the Tax Agency would need to appear as an injured party for Zapatero to face prosecution over an alleged tax offence. According to the judge, the nature of the facts under investigation “reveals financial harm directly connected to state-owned revenue whose management falls under the responsibility of the Tax Agency.”
On June 30, the People’s Party also filed an expanded version of the work plan for the Senate’s investigative committee reviewing how the State Industrial Holding Company, known as SEPI, managed the bailout procedures, and the party set July 13 as the date for Fernández to appear and outline the tax authority’s position; it would not be her first appearance before a committee of this kind, as she had already testified on February 18, 2025, before the Senate panel probing the Koldo case.
Opposition parties and members of the public have connected Fernández’s exit with this issue and with the Senate committee investigating SEPI’s management, where the departing director general had been called to testify on July 13 to outline the tax authorities’ stance.
“Zapatero’s jewellery has cornered the former prime minister and the government. With no credible explanation or defence, they have slowed the process to keep the matter concealed, even if that involves applying pressure on our institutions. The judge authorised the AEAT to enter the proceedings as a ‘potential injured party’. Since then, a single question has echoed throughout the institution: Will the Finance Ministry take action against Zapatero or not?” the People’s Party said last Tuesday.
Origin: ABC together with The Objective.
