Two days after appearing in Congress, Salvador Illa has returned to Madrid, without having received the corresponding official notification but aware that he was expected, as he has stated, to do so in the Senate, where, in the opinion of the PP, resides the " true" investigation commission into the Koldo case, while in the Lower House what exists is a "concealment commission" whose objective, far from shedding light on fraud in the purchase of masks during the pandemic, is to "sow noise so that "Nobody understands anything at all."
But, as far as the argument of the leader of the PSC and Minister of Health during the health crisis is concerned, little has changed, except, perhaps, his more heated and somewhat angry tone, throughout the career of San Jerónimo to the Plaza de la Marina Española, headquarters of the Upper House, in which the PP has an absolute majority with which to exercise unprecedented counterpower to the parliamentary forces that support the Government in Congress.
Illa has acknowledged that in September 2020 he met once with Koldo García, who was an advisor to the Ministry of Transportation, because he showed up at the Ministry of Health, without an appointment, and asked to see him. "I didn't know what he wanted, the meeting was not scheduled. He told me that he knew a company that could get material and I sent it to my cabinet, who did not buy anything from him," the former minister exclaimed before the senators.
"I followed the procedure and directed it to the department's technicians, who always valued the offers in the same way. The result is objective and that is that zero was purchased," Illa responded vehemently, recalling that during the pandemic they reached ministry offers even in the media, "most of the time from people of good will," he insisted.
In this sense, he has rejected that the company Soluciones de Gestión, the main one investigated in the plot, billed Health "not even one euro." It participated in a temporary joint venture (UTE) with Ferrovial Services, which was authorized to sell to the autonomous communities in the second wave of the virus because it met the requirements, if they "deemed it appropriate", but in the end "none bought anything", the leader of the Catalan socialists has argued.
Illa's appearance took place on the eve of the start of the campaign for the regional elections in Catalonia on May 12, in which the PSC candidate is the best placed. A circumstance, not at all random in the political struggle between PP and PSOE, that could have consequences on the electorate and condition the socialist's aspirations to become the new president of the Generalitat.
And hence, both ERC and Junts have tried in the investigation commission to question his record as a public manager. "He has failed to tell the truth and that is a terrible endorsement for standing in the elections," the popular senator Luis Santamaría has disfigured him. "Ah, that's what it was about," responded Illa, who sarcastically thanked the popular majority in the Senate for giving him that space for promotion in the decisive Catalan pre-campaign.
Thus, the intervention of the Junts per Catalunya senator, Joan Bagué, has been very critical of the "terrible and erratic management" of Illa, whom he has accused of preventing the autonomous governments from being able to assume the contracting of medical supplies to the having centralized purchases: "Is this rigorous management?" said the pro-independence parliamentarian. "What an endorsement, cutting off the powers of the autonomies when you start an electoral campaign tomorrow. More contradictory, impossible!" He denounced.
Illa's response, in this case, has focused on reproaching Junts for not voting for any of the six states of alarm, "which saved lives", according to the PSC leader, who also recalled that the councilor Josep Maria Argimon, appointed by Junts when he was part, together with ERC, of the Government of Pere Aragonès, praised the management of the Ministry of Health.
And the Republican Joan Josep Queralt has also argued with the PSC candidate in electoral terms: "You said that there have been neither criminal nor administrative breaches. It would be necessary to do more! Do we have to congratulate you for not having committed irregularities? But in which country "We live!" exclaimed the ERC senator, who pointed out that times were "difficult", as Illa has argued, for the entire population: "The main victims were the dead, not those who survived. They hire us to carry the day. ship to a safe port whatever the weather," said Queralt.
"I don't know which navigators he warns, because my party has 0.0 corruption and does not have any councilor convicted of smuggling (in reference to the former ERC councilor Jordi Ausàs)," defended the first secretary of the PSC, who was displeased. for having to appear for the second time in the same week, just before and after Sant Jordi, in a commission that, he understands, has a partisan purpose.
"If you didn't know what the purpose of Koldo García's visit was, why didn't you talk to Minister José Luis Ábalos to find out what he wanted?" Quelart asked him, with whom Illa had a heated exchange of interventions: "I attend to a person who shows up. I acted in accordance with the procedure. I had to make complicated decisions," responded Illa, whom Queralt has accused of "knowing his lesson." "I do not come here to explain any lesson, but rather what happened," concluded the former Minister of Health, who has praised the solidarity of some regional presidents such as Iñigo Urkullu.
For the PP, Alfonso Serrano from Madrid, right-hand man of the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has intervened, calling the Congressional commission a "paripé" and denouncing that the Ministry of Health "seized material" from the autonomies, to which Illa responded that "purchase was not prohibited in any case", but rather a centralization of purchases was chosen and a call was made to know what health products each autonomous government had.
Serrano has pointed out the "inconsistency" that, in his opinion, exists between Illa's statement and that of his chief of staff in the ministry, Víctor Francos, who in his appearance in the Senate spoke of three meetings with Koldo García in Health. And the also popular Luis Santamaría has insisted on this line of argument, who has starred in the most heated moment of the debate with Ila, which has had to be interrupted on more than one occasion due to some "insinuations" that the PSC leader has asked to clarify. , referring to the alleged corrupt plot and some "verbal contracts" for medical supplies that have been linked to the "incompetence" of the former minister. "Every effort was made in response to the existing framework. It was purchased earlier and at a better price than other administrations, for example, the Community of Madrid," Illa has defended himself.
Before Illa's appearance, the Senate plenary session has decided to expand the commission's object of investigation to be able to address issues that have nothing to do with the purchase and sale of medical supplies but that affect the "circle closest to the president", such as the alleged intervention of Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez's wife, in the rescue of the airline Air Europa by the Government.
All the parties represented in the Upper House, except the PP and the extreme right of Vox and UPN, have opposed voting as a measure of protest for the "imposition on the agenda" of the expansion, which, in any case, has was approved by 145 votes in favor in a chamber of 250 seats. With the PSOE at the helm, these formations denounce "the lack of guarantees and the violation of the fundamental rights of those appearing with the new purpose of the commission."
