Unlike all the democratic countries in the world, the cost of flights by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is kept secret, and the amount of taxpayers' pay for the cost of these trips remains secret, regardless of whether the flights are for official or private purposes. There is no information about anyone else traveling with him on the Dassault Falcon 900 jet, used by the Air Force 45 to transport the Spanish royal family and high-ranking government officials. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Government invokes legislation inherited from General Franco's reign to conceal this information, the 1968 Official Secrets Act. But legal experts say this insistence on the prime minister's security does not justify the lack of transparency in his travel expenses.
Two law professors say only the non-sensitive security details of the prime minister, such as the number of police officers traveling with him, for example, and the general cost of such flights should be disclosed, with no reason to go to a specific destination.
Sanchez was criticized by the opposition last summer after discovering he had made a trip on the Falcon 900 to Benicasim on the Mediterranean coast, where he attended a concert hosted by the Killers at the music festival. Government sources said Sanchez flew from there to meet with the mayor and the regional prime minister, and the ceremony was a side event. The government refuses to disclose information about the cost of Benicasim's trip to the media that has filed applications under the Spanish Transparency Act. Later, the authorities said € 282.92 was spent on the protocol, and Sanchez's official agenda did not include the concert.
Although the People's Party was very explicit about demanding this information, it did not disclose any details about the costs of the trips of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who belonged to him, when he was in power, and the People's Party at that time invoked the legal principles Itself, such as the Socialist Workers' Party to avoid disclosure of these figures.
"It is logical to hide information about the movements of officials, because disclosure of them may endanger state security, but this could include information about travel expenses if they are presented as general figures, not as a detailed list," says Emilio Geshot, a professor of administrative law at Cadiz University. Any information that can be used to threaten security can be extracted. "