Shorouk Express
The spot also features the premier’s wife, Begoña Gómez, former transport minister José Luis Ábalos and other figures with links to Sánchez’s Socialist party who are facing graft allegations.
All appear in swimwear on an idyllic beach in the video, which the right-wing PP has now removed from its account on social media platform X.
The clip mimics the opening sequence of the Spanish edition of popular reality TV show “Temptation Island”, which is shot in the Dominican Republic.
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It features a map of the Caribbean island nation and its flag along with the words “lust,” “ambition” and “lies”.
The PP apologised and removed the video late on Thursday after the Dominican Republic foreign ministry “strongly rejected” what it called a “malicious and incomprehensible attack”.
“The exploitation of the country’s image and the distortion of its national symbols is inacceptable — and is even worse when it is for Spanish domestic political motives,” the ministry added.
Sánchez apologised “to the Dominican Republic and the Dominican people for this shameful video”.
“The people who published it will have to answer for it,” he said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares blasted the PP on Friday for “openly embracing the communication strategies of the far right, with insults, slander and the use of artificial intelligence”.
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He said the party had created a “diplomatic incident” with the “brotherly people” of the Dominican Republic, a former Spanish colony.
A clip from the Spanish version of “Temptation Island” recently went viral.
It shows contestant Jose Carlos Montoya sprinting down a beach in the middle of the night to confront his girlfriend while she gets intimate with another man.
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