Ábalos, this dead man is very alive

There are tragedies of a single act and there are, like Macbeth, of up to five.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
28 February 2024 Wednesday 09:21
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Ábalos, this dead man is very alive

There are tragedies of a single act and there are, like Macbeth, of up to five. We will see how many the work we now have in our hands has in store for us. But oh, God, what a beginning! Heroes, traitors and villains. Only in this plot we still don't know how many characters there will be or who is what for sure. A corruption plot, in addition to time, requires the following ingredients to be fully exposed: the bandits' errors, an effective investigation, and resentful and cowardly people singing La traviata.

Koldo García and his brother Joseba, northern rogues, are at the moment the very bad bad guys. And a little stupid, we should add, for ignoring the most basic rules of operation of the uomini d'honore: do not boast about money immediately after the coup and do not carry 500 euro bills around bars and restaurants.

Among the villains we must also include Víctor de Aldama, the president of Zamora, who we already know from the judge's order that he had a special pass from the Ministry of Transportation to move like Pedro around his house through those premises. He took advantage of it to negotiate on behalf of Air Europa, among other matters, advantages for that company to which the government ended up helping with 615 million euros to avoid his bankruptcy. Also very bad is the businessman Juan Carlos Cueto, who yesterday declared before the judge that his only objective with the fake masks that he brought us from China was to act in defense of the Spanish. Mr. Cueto: so burst you and your cynicism!

But the star of the show is not the characters with already defined and politically subaltern characters. The dramatic tension is monopolized by José Luís Ábalos, the once powerful minister and organizational secretary of the PSOE whom the President of the Government does not stop trying to politically assassinate again and again. The first, two years ago, when he fired him without explanation, raising all kinds of suspicions. The second, now, accusing him directly of being responsible for the corruption that surfaces in the ministry that he directed. But Ábalos has rebelled against his fatal fate when they were already trying to shroud him and a tall epitaph was engraved on his tombstone: “Here lies a faithful servant of the party.”

Hero or villain? Cynical or guilty? Loyal or traitor? The former minister challenges everyone from a role that does not suit him at all, but that he executes with more than remarkable success: the innocent victim who came into the world yesterday. The most interesting thing he has said to date is that he has many answers that he will give and that Koldo García was the one who plugged him into his ministry by offering him all the personal guarantees, Santos Cerdán, Pedro Sánchez's current man for everything. . They are phrases that, speaking in football terms, would be equivalent to two great deep passes so that the play continues closer to the area: I know what I know and tweet, tweet that it was not me, that it was someone else. As in the dentist joke, guys, let's not hurt ourselves more than we have already done.

The PSOE continues to bail out water so as not to be sheared further in the construction site. Commission of investigation at its own request in Congress, even if it is more intended to cloud than to clarify anything. And an audit commissioned by the vehement head of Transportation, Óscar Puente, to clear up doubts about the hiring of that ministry. Puente does well to take the initiative, knowing that calls between Koldo García and Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, general secretary of State Ports, are also being investigated, a public company that, like Adif, also participated in the orgiastic purchase of masks during the pandemic.

The Government, that is, Sánchez, says it is calm. Although it is assumed that the procession goes inside. Even in the best case scenario for his interests – that this was a one-act drama – the balance of damage is already more than considerable. And not to give ammunition to the opposition, that too, but because killing a close relative is a bird of bad omen in all classic tragedies. Even more so if it is not achieved. And Ábalos, badly injured, Pedro Sánchez's blood brother, is very, very alive.