“This government is implacable in the face of corruption,” the president of the government assured this Friday. Pedro Sanchezregarding the revelations about Jose Luis Abalos, who was his right-hand man as Minister of Transport and Secretary of the PSOE Organization.
According to these revelations, his trusted man within the government and the party could be the main person responsible for a corruption plot with ramifications in ministries and regional governments.
The example that Sánchez and his ministers invoked yesterday consists of having expelled Ábalos for his political responsibility when it was learned that his advisor, Koldo Garciawould have been corrupted. That is why the question now is what should be the equivalent measure when the corrupt person can be someone so close to the president of the government and whose political responsibility lies for the actions of Ábalos.
This explains the state of shock What the Civil Guard report provokes within the government and the PSOE.
When the activity of Koldo García became known, Sánchez could not withdraw the seat of Ábalos, but he quickly expelled him from the Socialist Group, arguing that he was doing so because of his political responsibility in appointing his advise and by not having monitored his activities. This is what the president bragged about yesterday in Rome.
He is the socialist leader who trusted Ábalos years ago and he carried out his alleged corrupt activities while having this trust from the president.
He dismissed him by surprise in 2021 from his post as minister and number two in the PSOE, but kept him on the lists, without ever explaining if it was because he had suspicions about his behavior. And years ago, in the PSOE and in the government, there was talk of the strange actions of those around Ábalos, including his singular advisor, Koldo García, according to EL ESPAÑOL.
He placed him on the PSOE lists in 2023, although at that time, according to the UCO Civil Guard report, the president was already aware, at least, of his efforts to bring Spain to Delcy Rodriguezvice president of Venezuela.
This is why the president is now doubly hanging on Ábalos’ thread: for what is discovered in the judicial investigation and for his seat, which continues to be one of those supporting him in Congress.
Sánchez is also hanging on Carles Puigdemontirritated with him for the delay in implementing the amnesty. Sánchez’s intention is to exhaust the legislative power, but even his parliamentary partners find it very difficult to hold on like this for another three years.
The uncomfortable reality for the President of the Government is that Ábalos is today one of the deputies who support him in the House, and his parliamentary majority is so tight that it can depend on the vote in Congress of those he appoints as corrupted, if applicable. among them, its potential partners abstain.
Without Ábalos’ vote, it could be more difficult for government initiatives to advance in Congress, starting with the General state budgets and therefore, the legislative power is also in the hands of the person who is about to be accused of corruption.
Are you going to negotiate with Ábalos?
The government may have to sit down with Ábalos to negotiate his vote or, at least, to find out his position on each parliamentary initiative, even though he has already been accused of corruption by the Supreme Court.
This Friday, Sánchez went to visit the Pope to make visible his efforts to find solutions to the war in the Middle East, and yet the attention, the questions and the headlines refer above all to corruption. It also makes Sánchez uncomfortable and weakens him.
Some of the revelations documented in the UCO report call into question Sánchez’s statements, such as those referring to Delcy Rodríguez’s visit to Spain, and decisions like the one mentioned regarding the surprising dismissal of Ábalos in 2021. Au- beyond what this implies, the one who was the right arm of the president of the government could be accused of corruption.
This is how Sánchez closes five dark days which, in part, are the continuation of the five black days of April in which he locked himself up to decide whether he should leave Moncloa.
This apparently worked well for him in the short term, as it achieved electoral profitability in Catalonia and allowed him to articulate a story about hoaxes, the “fachosphere”, the legal persecution of his wife. Begoña Gomez and pseudomedia.
But ultimately it went wrong because in the PSOE it opened the debate on his hypothetical departure, which pushed many to position themselves in the face of a new future stage which, for the first time, was visualized. And now, in addition, the order of the Provincial Court on Begoña Gómez largely destroys this history and the UCO report on Ábalos shatters this strategy of the president. It is not easy to argue that it is all due to a prevaricating judge and a media that spreads hoaxes.
These are no longer pseudomedia, but rather The economistpreviously greeted by Sánchez, the one who questions him. And it is the UCO, which he himself used to exonerate his wife, which indicates that the corrupt plot linked to Ábalos had penetrated at the heart of the party and the government.
For example, the government surprisingly dismissed the Director General of the Civil Guard under the pretext of “personal decision”, and now the UCO knows that it may have been him who gave a investigation board from the Corps to members of the conspiracy. And despite everything, the government rewarded him by giving him an important position at the Spanish embassy in Washington. Even if Sánchez affirms that “this government is implacable in the face of corruption”.
Until now, the president’s strategy has been to leave all responsibility to Ábalos, like a cordon santé, but with the UCO report it will be more difficult for him to maintain it.
From the five black days of April, we arrive at the five black days of October, during which the government only had oxygen from negligence of the PP in supporting the law reducing the time spent in prison for known terrorists, and the People’s Party’s overreaction on the issue, rejected by victims of terrorism and by many party leaders.
How I wrote The economistthe opposition’s performance is “Sánchez’s greatest asset”.
Changes in government
In this situation, socialist leaders and ministers assure that it is predictable that Sánchez will address profound changes within the government and the PSOE when he has to replace Therese Ribera and during the party’s federal congress at the end of November.
They explain that in this difficult situation the president must find solutions to try to move forward, and one of them could be to give the impression of a new stage and a change of team.
In September he already changed his Cabinet and he can now address the Government and the party, in which there are dysfunctions and some civil servants are already exhausted in their management.
It seems likely, in any case, that Sánchez will have to live for months with Judge Peinado’s investigation into Begoña Gómez, after the order of the Provincial Court of Madrid which authorizes the continuation of the investigation and the rejection of the request for file by the lawyer of the president’s wife.
Some of Moncloa’s arguments are broken, such as the “prospective investigation” or the prevarication of the judge. They remain to be resolved complaints against the judgebut at the moment one of them has already been categorically rejected and those of the prosecution and of Begoña Gómez herself remain.
Moncloa responded to this setback from the Provincial Court with clear lies about the order, uttered by the minister’s spokesperson, Pilar Alegría.
The minister also distorted the reality regarding the legal reform which makes it possible to reduce the sentences of ETA members. The spokesperson read an internal government argument according to which even, The date of a Council of State report was wrong. This report dated from 2013 and obviously could not comment on the amendment presented this summer.
The government has ruled out withdrawing this amendment and has also explained in detail the reasons for this legal change. Executive sources refer to the decision to remove extraordinary measures regarding ETA prisoners, but do not openly support it in public.
He also failed to do so when asking Sumar to present the amendment, despite the political importance and procedural consequences. “Don’t do what you can’t explain,” says a political principle recalled these days by a leader of one of the government’s parliamentary partners.
Barons’ Rebellion
The context for the socialist leader is also that of an unusual situation in his mandate as head of government: the rebellion of the regional barons of the PSOE who see their positions threatened.
This has its origin in the five days of April and exploded in the five days of October, awaiting the possible battles that are brewing in some socialist federations, if Sánchez maintains his objective of “renew these leaderships“.
Sánchez has already announced his desire to renew them just after the municipal and regional elections of 2023.
Moreover, on these dates, between the local elections and the general elections, when everything seemed to indicate that Sánchez’s stay in La Moncloa was coming to an end, the socialist leader detected movements of those who wanted to position themselves for a new stage. Some were his former collaborators and Sánchez took note of them. These days in Ferraz it is suspected that some of them were behind the territorial movements.
Meanwhile, Moncloa continues negotiations with Junts to agree on the trajectory of the deficit and then seek an agreement. difficult agreement on budgets. For now, she has already informed Brussels that they will be delayed and will not be approved until at least January or February. If they are approved, it will perhaps be with the vote of Ábalos, who could then already be accused of corruption.
This is how Sánchez wants to continue for three years, supported by clearly positive economic data.
