The last time Spain improved in the global ranking of the Corruption Perceptions Index was in 2019, the year in which two general elections were held following the vote of no confidence in Mariano Rajoy. Six years have passed and, since then, . During 2025, Spain has dropped one point and three more positions in the ranking, placing it at number 49 out of 180 countries. Cyprus and Fiji have the same score. Italy and Poland are close behind, both with 53 points; Malaysia and Oman, with 52; and Bahrain, Georgia, Greece and Jordan, with 50. This is reflected in the Corruption Perception Index prepared and published this Tuesday by , in which, the higher the position, the greater the presence of corruption.
The report warns that in the majority of EU Member States there is a general decrease in the score and the NGO is especially concerned because they observe . Two factors that explain this decline are the loss of international leadership and the deterioration of the role of the United States. “Its role was very powerful in previous years. However, since Trump is president, one of the first decisions that were adopted was to annul the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). And of course, this has influenced that, for other countries, there is less pressure to comply with a norm of extraordinary importance in anti-corruption policies,” Silvina Bacigalupo, president of Transparency International Spain, tells EL PAÍS.
In this context, Spain also falls one place in the ranking of perception of corruption in the European Union, from 16 to 17 among the 27 member states. The Spanish decline is due, among other reasons, to “the need to strengthen controls and transparency in public procurement”, “geopolitical tensions and tariffs” and “the lack of effective anti-corruption reforms in terms of transparency.”
The Government was closing a 2025 marked by internal tensions, governance challenges, in addition to the entry into prison of the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, who is now on provisional release, and the entry into the Soto del Real prison of the former minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor, Koldo García.
In response to the scandals, last July the Executive promoted a State Plan to Fight Corruption, made up of 15 measures, which was presented by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Transparency International analyzed the measures in September and noted that, despite being “a very important step,” it was “insufficient” and has “a limited scope.”
For the organism, The country is unable to boost its score because it needs to strengthen anti-corruption policies, something that is complicated, since these depend on “the existence of basic political consensus that brings about legislative reforms.” Deputies in the Spanish courts are increasingly reluctant to reach an agreement and many reforms remain forgotten in the Congress drawer. Added to this is the need for “an effective and continued institutional commitment,” according to the report.
The NGO has warned on several occasions that the downward trend will persist in Spain if there are no structural changes. The president of Transparency International Spain advocates the creation of a National Anti-Corruption Strategy. “It must be agreed upon by Congress and the Senate, in such a way that said strategy is not at the mercy of changes in government, but is a true State policy,” he points out.
Bacigalupo believes that important regulatory reforms have been promoted, but these still lack sufficient resources to guarantee that they are effective, “especially in a context of absence of General State Budgets.” The index, which has become the main global indicator of corruption in the public sector, evaluates all countries with a scale of 0 to 100 points using data from 8 external sources in the Spanish case, among which are the World Bank or the World Economic Forum.
