“It seems like everything helped.” These five words from a message sent by Jose Luis Abalos has Javier Hidalgo summarize the link that existed between the former Minister of Development and the CEO of Air Europa in 2020. A union supported by the commission agent Victor de Aldama who worked to achieve the rescue of Air Europa in 2020.
This is clear from the report of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) in which the judge in charge of the investigation into the “Koldo plot” is asked to broaden the investigations. In the document you can see how the Civil Guard considers that “Aldama took advantage of his relationship with Koldo (former advisor to the minister) and with Ábalos to influence the final granting of the Air Europa rescue plan.”
So much so that both participated in various meetings with different members of the government to try to green light the help the airline needed.
It was the minister himself who, meeting the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, and the former vice-president and minister of the economy, Nadia Calvino, They closed the granting of a second ICO on July 16, 2020.
This is what Aldama informed the CEO of Air Europa in a message sent the day before in which he underlined that “tomorrow morning, first thing in the morning, is the 1st, she, that of the Treasury, and he and the decision was made that it will happen but tomorrow, when I am with him, I will tell you.
“The 1” in Aldama terminology would be Pedro Sanchez; “The one from the Treasury”, that’s what he referred to Calvino and “he” was Jose Luis Abalos.
In fact, after this meeting, Aldama and Hidalgo went to Transports to meet Ábalos. A few minutes earlier, Koldo had informed the commissioner via WhatsApp that the minister “is with Nadia” and that “he is resolving the problem”. “It only works with pressure. It’s a machine“.
Horas más tarde, y una vez concluido el encuentro entre el ministro y el representante de Air Europa, Aldama le decía a Koldo: “Le acaba de poner un mensaje el jefe a Javi que la ministra le ha dicho que la semana que viene está”.
Tan sólo 24 horas después, el comisionista le decía a Hidalgo que “K (Koldo) me dice que ya le ha llamado el 1 en cuanto sepa te digo ha servido la llamada“. Algo de lo que, según la UCO, se “deduce que el presidente del Gobierno se habría puesto en contacto con Ábalos, pero este último todavía no le habría comentado nada a Koldo”.
Pese a los esfuerzos de todas las partes, el crédito ICO no fructificó y el Gobierno decidió otorgar un préstamo participativo a través de la Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), perteneciente al Ministerio de Hacienda que lidera María Jesús Montero.
Este cambio supuso retrasar la ayuda, pero ahí Ábalos intercedió también junto al presidente del Gobierno. Un mensaje de Aldama a Hidalgo interceptado por la UCO el 4 de agosto de 2020 explica que “el ministro está en este momento con el presidente en el consejo, saliendo le cuenta la situación y nos llama incluso con el presidente”.
El trabajo realizado por el exministro de Transportes era constantemente destacado por Aldama ante Javier Hidalgo. Así se puede ver en un mensaje enviado el 8 de agosto de 2020: “Luego te llamo y te veo un rato y comentamos que hable con el jefe. Lo tenemos mejor que nunca”.
Ya a finales de mes, la UCO destaca que el comisionista trasladaba a Aldama que “el jefe [Ábalos] “She’s at SEPI with the other two for ours.”
Two other important meetings took place subsequently. Ábalos and Hidalgo participated in the premiere; in the second, the one who was then Secretary of State for Transport, Pedro Saura; the vice-president of SEPI, Bartolomé Lora and Luis, who is not identified.
Once again, on September 4, Aldama met with Ábalos to ask him to intercede with the president of SEPI so that he could give him an answer regarding the aid to Air Europa.
Approved rescue
That said, the Civil Guard has WhatsApp screenshots of Ábalos in which he asks Lora to respond to Hidalgo because “the poor guy is looking at his cell phone.” A day later, Aldama informed Hidalgo’s secretary that “rescue would be approved“, even if the agreement of the Council of Ministers did not arrive until November 3.
Even though the government had given the green light at the beginning of September, the dead end Until all the details were finalized, Hidalgo was impatient. This is why the commission agent sent him messages during his meeting with José Luis Ábalos.
For example, on September 22, when he asked “let me help you […] trust me […] Tell Ramio to coordinate with me, take care of the SEPI problem and I take care of the rest with the ministers“. Or on September 29, when he said to her: “Call me, I’m with the minister and you have to be there on Thursday.”
