euractiv.com - MADRID – Spanish magistrates, law enforcement leaders and opposition politicians are voicing alarm over Madrid’s unusually close ties to Beijing, as the Chinese tech giant’s footprint in Spain’s public sector is deeper than first thought.

The concerns have intensified since July, when reports surfaced of an alleged €12.3 million contract between 2021 and 2025 for Huawei to store sensitive judicial wiretap data for the interior ministry.

Opposition Popular Party (PP) secretary general Miguel Tellado branded the public tender “shady” and claimed it was part of “the Chinese branch of Pedro Sánchez’s enormous corruption network.” The PP is also demanding that Sánchez’s top ministers testify before parliament after the summer recess.

The interior ministry has denied the existence of the Huawei agreement and did not clarify whether the initial €12.3 million figure was part of a broader deal with Spanish firms such as Telefónica, TRC or Econocom, as several local outlets have suggested.

The alleged deal has landed at a politically delicate moment for the Socialist-led government, already reeling from multiple corruption scandals.