# Spanish opposition’s Temptation Island spoof triggers diplomatic row

**Spain’s PM ‘deeply embarrassed’ after rival politicians offend Dominican Republic with AI video**

  
Fri 7 Mar 2025 11.14 EST  
First published on Fri 7 Mar 2025 10.20 EST

A bare-chested image of Sánchez featured in the video, as did a swimsuit-clad Gómez and a mock-up of the former transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, holding a cocktail.

Gómez is being investigated by a judge after a self-styled trade union with far-right links  as the wife of the prime minister to secure sponsors for a university masters’ degree course that she ran. Ábalos, meanwhile, was  in February last year after refusing to resign when his assistant was accused of taking bribes to facilitate mask contracts during the Covid pandemic. Both Gómez and Ábalos have denied any wrongdoing.

Although intended as a domestic jab, the video, posted on the PP’s social media channels, incurred the wrath of the Dominican Republic, where Temptation Island is filmed. The small Caribbean nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with neighbouring Haiti, was angered by the juxtaposition of its flag and a map of the country with the message: “Once Temptation Island has finished, the new adventures on Corruption Island begin.” The video also made mention of “corruption, lust, ambition and lies”.

On Thursday, the Dominican Republic’s foreign ministry posted , decrying what it called “the malicious and incomprehensible attack” on the country and stressing that it had made great strides in strengthening the rule of law and transparency.

“The exploitation of the country’s image and the distortion of its national symbols is unacceptable – even more so when it’s for domestic Spanish political ends,” it said.

On Thursday evening, the PP pulled the video, which, it said, had been solely intended to , adding: “There was never, at any time, any intention to damage the image of the Dominican Republic, a country with a long tradition of friendship and closeness to Spain.”

Despite being the butt of the backfiring stunt, Sánchez also apologised. Speaking after Thursday’s summit of European leaders in Brussels, the prime minister said that he had been too busy to watch the video but still wanted to say sorry for its content.

“All I can say is that I’m deeply embarrassed and I apologise sincerely on behalf of ,” he said. “ is a friend and an extraordinary country with which we have cultural and historical links.”

The video was released in the same week that the former PP prime minister,  to deny any knowledge of a shadowy political and police plot to target and undermine both Catalan independence leaders and . Rajoy, who was prime minister from 2011 to 2018, lost power after  after a string of damaging corruption cases involving PP members.
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