The former number three of the PSOE confirms to EL ESPAÑOL that he will no longer be “as followed” in the votes and that The government “cannot take for granted” its support.
Ábalos was suspended from activism and expelled from the Mixed Group last February, after the arrest of his former advisor and right-hand man.
Since then, he has not been able to appeal his sanction, because The party keeps its file “frozen”without providing him with the documentation necessary for his allegations.
With this decision, the former minister will test the PSOE’s weak majority in Congress and affirms that from now on, will decide his vote “in conscience”.
When asked if he could reject the legal reforms that led to the approval of the “Catalan quota” When they are led to the chamber, he says: “I will think about it. We will examine each case.”
So far, the government has been able to approve few initiatives in Congress. AND Laws like amnesty were passed with only 177 votes in favour, that is, with only one vote margin compared to the required majority.
In the future, if Ábalos does not follow the PSOE and does not vote alongside the PP, Vox, UPN and the Canarian Coalition, the majority of the executive will hang by a thread.
The political journey therefore begins with a new problem for a PSOE that will have to be able to count on the vote of Ábalos to be able to implement the initiatives and laws that it presents to Congress.
Pedro Sánchez has managed to balance, so far, the difficult parliamentary arithmetic, based on concessions made to his partners. However, the warning from his former right-hand man transforms Ábalos into a new unknown.
Therefore, the government will not only have to sweat with a Carles Puigdemont (Junts) willing to “bare their claws” or with a Podemos struggling to distinguish itself to the left of Sumar to advance its projects: The former minister will also be able to negotiate his support.
The case of Catalan quotaafter the agreement between the CPS and the ERC to invest Salvador Illa in the Generalitat, will be the key review. As elected from ValenciaAbalos’ “conscience” may prompt him to defend one of the least well-funded regions in Spain.
The “single funding” project for Catalonia has attracted strong criticism from various groups in the Valencian Community, in the socialist federation of which Abalos maintains a very large quota of followers.
The former minister’s warning comes after the Ministry of Transport’s audit of the Koldo casein which Ábalos is particularly highlighted.
The former PSOE organisation secretary later stated in EL ESPAÑOL that there was a clear “political intention” and that the report presented by Oscar Bridge It was “totally subjective.”
In this internal audit, Ábalos is targeted for having doubled, in just 38 minutes, the number of masks, from four million to eightwhich had to be purchased from the company investigated as part of the investigation Koldo case.
Also in this document, on 89 pages to which this newspaper had access for the first time, it is indicated that only the final destination of 1.2 million masks out of the eight million units purchased is accredited.
Regarding why the number of masks to be purchased from Management Solutions doubled in such a short time, the then Minister of Transport told this newspaper last Sunday. I don’t remember it.
However, he assures that he signed what the officials presented to him and that at that time “the priority was ensure national security“.
Audit Reviews
“If at that time we had been able to buy 12, 16 or 20 million masks, we would have done it,” says the man who was head of the Transport portfolio between 2018 and 2021.
Ábalos describes this audit as illegal, because a judicial investigation has been opened and has become “a kind of courtyard of honor”.
Similarly, he also criticizes the fact that this report evaluates a political decision such as a ministerial decree for the purchase of medical supplies in a situation of emergency and global collapse.
The Valencia MP, now assigned to the Joint Group, claims that the person who occupies the General Directorate of Organization and Inspection of the Ministry, who was in charge of the audit, is “judge and party”.
He thus emphasizes Belen Villarwho was at the time chief of staff to the Under Secretary of State Jesus Manuel Gomezwho was fired last Friday by Puente.
“The same person who was then responsible in 2020 and 2021 for the execution of the contracts is now the one who coordinates its internal investigation in 2024,” explains Ábalos.
The former Minister of Transport also assures that the audit is a case of “administrative intrusion”since it is trying to control what the Court of Auditors has already done and validated.
Likewise, it indicates that it does not meet the criteria of compliance that an audit of this type must be: impartial, objective, specialized, independent, periodic and planned.
Furthermore, in these reports, it is mandatory that the auditor or auditing body “has no direct link with the service to be audited”.
This does not happen and is made worse when this report was commissioned from the department of Belén Villar, which was one of the most responsible in 2020 for ensuring that all administrative procedures were correct.
The former minister points out that the document made public by Puente is devoid of any legal validity. Finally, he indicates that the Anti-Fraud Project of the Ministry of Transport has not detected to date any of the incidents highlighted below.
