Soledad Fernández is getting ready to leave Spain’s Tax Agency as internal tensions mount over shifts in the institution’s leadership and the continuing turmoil surrounding 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 influences other top officials across the agency, as internal strain and differing versions persist regarding the real magnitude of the crisis. The Finance Ministry maintains that Fernández’s exit did not stem from an abrupt resignation but from a replacement request submitted months earlier and delayed until the close of the income tax campaign to prevent disrupting the agency during one of its peak 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 overseeing the Plus Ultra case invited the Finance Ministry to step in as a “potential injured party” regarding the jewellery that the National Police confiscated from Zapatero’s office. This marks a pivotal turn because, under the case’s structure, the Tax Agency must be recognized as an injured party for Zapatero to be prosecuted for a supposed tax violation. The judge noted that the circumstances under review “show financial damage directly tied to state-managed revenue administered by the Tax Agency.”
In addition, on June 30, the People’s Party submitted a broadened version of the work plan for the Senate investigation committee examining how the State Industrial Holding Company, known as SEPI, handled the bailout processes. The party scheduled Fernández to appear on July 13 so she could explain the tax authority’s stance. This would not mark her first time before such a committee; on February 18, 2025, she had already given testimony to the Senate committee looking into the Koldo case.
Opposition parties and members of the public have linked Fernández’s departure to this matter and to the Senate investigation committee on SEPI’s management, where the outgoing director general had been summoned to appear on July 13 to explain the position of the tax authorities.
“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.
