The Spanish anti-corruption campaigners behind the complaint, Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), has since acknowledged that the allegations against Gomez could be false, saying it had based its suit on media reports and could not vouch for their veracity.

Prosecutors in Spain on Thursday requested the dismissal of a corruption case against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife that prompted him to announce he was suspending his duties to assess whether he would remain in office.

Madrid’s prosecuting authority said it was appealing a Madrid court’s decision on Wednesday to look into a private complaint laid by a right-wing anti-corruption group against Begona Gomez over alleged influence peddling and business corruption.

The appeal will be heard by a separate court and could take months, and the judge’s investigation into Gomez is sealed in the meantime.

The Spanish anti-corruption campaigners behind the complaint, Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), has since acknowledged that the allegations against Gomez could be false. It said earlier that it had based its suit on media reports and could not vouch for their veracity.

Manos Limpias’ leader Miguel Bernad, who has links to the far right, said in a social media statement that the group had merely compiled and passed the reports to a judge out of “civic duty” and denied that the action was politically motivated.

The group released a statement Thursday signed by Bernad acknowledging that its allegations against Gomez might be false: “If they are not true, it will be up to those that published them to take responsibility for the falsehood.”

Sanchez, who last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government, issued an online statement to citizens on Wednesday that he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday.

He blamed the move on what he called “unprecedented slander and harassment from the right and far right” and forcefully denied the allegations against his wife.

Sanchez said his wife would work with the judiciary to make clear there was no substance to the claims. Gomez has not addressed the allegations publicly.

The court did not give details of the accusations against Gomez other than to say it had begun investigating allegations of influence peddling and corruption on April 16.

Manos Limpias had decided to ask the court to launch a probe into Gomez’s business dealings after prosecutors had failed to act on their own initiative and the investigating judge will decide whether the media reports are true, Bernad said.

Sanchez has been in power since 2018, and his Socialist party is due to contest European Parliament elections in June and elections in the Catalonia region of north-eastern Spain next month.

The prime minister was due to take part in a campaign launch in Barcelona on Thursday. His decision to cancel several days of official engagements in order to decide whether he resigns or takes another course of action has led the nation into uncharted waters.

Deputy Prime Minister and Budget Minister Maria Jesus Montero said she hoped Sanchez would announce next week that he would remain in his post “because we need him”.