The government dissociates itself from the “Ábalos case” after the Civil Guard investigation revealed that the former Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, received compensation from the businessman who obtained contracts from his department and that he attributes to the former head of the PSOE a “relevant role” in the intrigue. “We have acted as a government with full force, we will continue to do so. We want to be absolutely transparent, that everything that has to be investigated is, that whoever has to pay pays it,” responded the Minister of Justice and the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, to journalists in Luxembourg before attending a meeting with their EU counterparts.
“Eight months ago, when we learned the first information which at the time did not even point to Mr. Ábalos, but rather to one of his collaborators [en referencia a Koldo García]we have already done everything that needs to be done. We excluded him from the party, we asked him for the minutes and at that point he was no longer part of the government,” said Bolaños, who did not want to specify, however, whether the reason why Sánchez got rid of Ábalos during the Executive mandate and in The match was due to suspicions of irregular conduct The president never delved into the reasons for the dismissal of what was until then the. number three of the organization.
Bolaños defended that the socialists have acted with transparency since the plot, linked to the purchase of masks during the pandemic, was revealed. “We created a commission of inquiry in Congress to make everything known. At the Ministry of Transport itself, an internal audit was also carried out to find out everything that happened and what we want is for there to be an investigation and whoever has to pay, pays.” he reiterated.
The minister avoided commenting on the trip of Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who made a stopover in Madrid, where she cannot set foot on European soil due to sanctions imposed by the EU. Ábalos has always denied that a meeting with the Venezuelan leader took place and that he simply went to the airport to prevent her from setting foot on Spanish soil. “I avoided a conflict,” he said at the time.
However, a few days before this trip, Ábalos sent a message to Sánchez in which he informed him of his visit. “To finish annoying you, the vice-president of Venezuela is coming next Monday on a private trip and wants to see me discreetly. The management that we agreed with the Spanish companies allowed Duro Felguera to recover a significant debt,” he said. “Good,” the president replied.
“The right has been trying to tarnish the name of the president of the government for ten years, they were not going to make an exception for this. “Today more than ever, I am very proud to belong to a government that has been, is and will always be implacable against corruption,” Bolaños limited himself to responding on this subject.
