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 is also shaping the actions of other senior officials throughout the agency, as internal tensions and conflicting accounts continue over the true scale of the crisis. The Finance Ministry insists that Fernández’s departure was not triggered by a sudden resignation, but rather by a replacement request filed months earlier and postponed until the end of the income tax campaign to avoid disrupting the agency during one of its busiest periods.
However, this change comes at a highly delicate moment for the Tax Agency, as the judge overseeing the Plus Ultra case has recently offered the Finance Ministry the opportunity to join the proceedings as a potentially wronged party in relation to €1.3 million worth of jewellery that the National Police recovered from the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The AEAT’s decision on whether to take part or remain on the sidelines has become one of the central political flashpoints surrounding the matter.
A few days ago, the judge handling the Plus Ultra case asked the Finance Ministry to participate as a potential injured party in relation to the jewellery seized by the National Police from Zapatero’s office, signalling a key shift since the Tax Agency must be acknowledged as an injured party for Zapatero to face charges for an alleged tax offense, and the judge indicated that the facts under examination reveal financial harm directly linked to state-managed funds overseen 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 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 pushed the former prime minister and the government into a corner. Lacking explanations and any plausible defence, they are simply stalling to hide the entire affair, even if it means exerting pressure on our institutions. The judge allowed the AEAT to join the case as a ‘potential injured party’. Since then, a single question has been resonating throughout the institution: Will the Finance Ministry act against Zapatero, yes or no?” the People’s Party stated last Tuesday.
Origin: ABC and The Objective.
