The Executive claims that Pedro Sánchez did not know what his right arm and number two in the match was doing. For his part, according to sources close to Ábalos, The former minister will base his defense on blaming his former advisor Koldo Garcia Izaguirre.
Therefore, the PSOE and Ábalos are throwing the ball back in the future Supreme Court investigation. Pedro Sánchez does not admit any political responsibility and the former head of the Development portfolio claims that he never made any profits or received commissions.
Socialist sources assure that They took the Supreme Court’s decision for granted. to investigate Ábalos, and they had long been preparing to grant Congress’ request. In practice, this does not mean making a decision, because almost all the requests that Democracy has received from the Supreme Court have been answered affirmatively.
What is not the case on this occasion is criticism of the courts, as in other judicial decisions that affect the government. This happened in the case of Begoña Gomez or in that of the Attorney General of the State, Alvaro Garcia.
The official thesis adopted by the socialists is the following: José Luis Ábalos acted without the support of anyone in the party or government and that Sánchez had no knowledge of his activities.
Ábalos is therefore already for the president of the government what Luis Bárcenas was for Mariano Rajoy when he was accused: “This person you asked me about.” Nobody talks about him either in Ferraz or in Moncloa.
However, EL ESPAÑOL revealed last month that Santos Cerdán negotiated a non-aggression pact with Koldo García after the publication of the audit on masks ordered by Óscar Puente.
The PSOE organizational secretary called Koldo García by telephone, according to an eyewitness, on August 28 around 10 p.m. Cerdán was then in Mexico to conclude an alliance with Morena, the party of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum.
Cerdán and Koldo “had coffee” on September 10. These conversations aimed to reorient the situation with Ábalos’ advisor and the former minister, since there was great fear within the PSOE of leaks that could directly harm the government and Sánchez.
The defense of Ábalos
The reasoned brief presented to the Supreme Court by the judge of the National Court Ishmael Moreno He assured that there is sufficient evidence to investigate Ábalos for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, influence peddling, corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
Ábalos told EL ESPAÑOL that I didn’t know Aldama bought the cottage in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) and that he paid from his own account 7,500 euros corresponding to the first month’s rent and the two months’ deposit that the contract imposed on him.
For its part, depending on its environment, I also didn’t know that the monthly rent for the luxury apartment in the Plaza de España in Madrid where his girlfriend, a young student named Jesica Rodríguez García, lived. was paid by Luis Alberto Escolanoleader of the commissionaire Víctor de Aldama.
The house, located in the Tower of Madrid, I had a rental 2,700 euros per monthwhich have been deposited by the parcel for more than two and a half years. In total, 82,000 euros.
Ábalos claims he did not know the activities of Aldama and Koldo, nor whether they were both discussing buying a chalet or paying rent for his girlfriend’s apartment. It was to please him, without his knowing.
This version is in contradiction with the elements collected in the reports of the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard. The mobile devices seized in Koldo allowed agents to recover the WhatsApp between Ábalos and his advisor regarding the Cádiz villa.
The former minister chose the villa purchased by Aldama and also gave orders to keep a piano for one of his young children. In other words, the conversations show how Ábalos chose the house with Koldo and how the commission agent found a partner to pay for it.
The buyer was Claudio Rivasin prison with Aldama for having defrauded the Treasury of 182 million euros with hydrocarbon companies. The owner of Villafuel called on one of the companies he controlled, Have Got Time SL, to carry out the operation.
Rivas agreed to buy the chalet from the minister in exchange for Villafuel receiving the title of hydrocarbon operator. This is not the only payment from Aldama’s partner since, as EL ESPAÑOL exclusively published, it paid more than a million euros to carry out the appropriate procedures with the government.
Ábalos affirms that he never had any relations with Claudio Rivas and will therefore once again designate Koldo García as the sole person responsible for the procedures carried out with the Ministry of Industry through Juan Ignacio Díaz Bidartchief of staff of Minister Reyes Montoro.
Sánchez’s responsibility
Meanwhile, in the PSOE, the reasons why Sánchez decided by surprise in 2021 to do without his right arm in the PSOE and the government are still not explained.
The president of the government has so far limited himself to ensuring his dismissal because it was necessary to give a political boost to the executive once the pandemic has passed. He also did not explain the reasons why he put him back on the lists for the 2023 legislative elections.
Some reports claim he was fired due to his personal life. It was also published that Ábalos had presented disproportionate expense accounts to the party, without the PSOE having so far denied it.
The former minister told EL ESPAÑOL at the time that in 2023, when Sánchez informed him he would be on the list, he warned him that the relationship with Koldo García “didn’t do him any good” .
The socialists’ argument distances himself from Ábalos and, obviously, there is no one to support or defend him within the party and the government. It is constantly repeated that Sánchez acted in an exemplary manner by expelling him from the party and the Socialist Group in February, as soon as the allegedly criminal activities of Koldo García, his right-hand man, became known.
The socialists do not explain why Ábalos is politically responsible for the corruption of his right arm and, on the other hand, Sánchez is not responsible for the similar activities of the man who was precisely his right arm for years.
Official sources say they are calm before the possibility of information surfacing which further affect the government and the PSOE. However, there is concern among leaders and ministers that the investigations will eventually reveal data about the plot’s relationships with other ministries, beyond Transport and Home Affairs.
