José Luis Ábalos, a political animal, dedicated to the socialist party for decades, the same formation that has now let him fall due to the so-called 'Koldo case', has gone today to give explanations to the Senate about the mask contracts during the pandemic that are being investigated, about 'delcygate' and about their current relationship with the PSOE.
Ábalos, who continues with his deputy record but in the mixed group after being suspended from militancy by his party, has responded politically to all the senators, whom he thanked for their tone, despite the serious accusations that some leveled against him. him, like for example that of the PP.
He did so during his intervention in the investigative commission held in the Senate for the 'Koldo case', in reference to Koldo García, his former advisor and trusted man, with whom after learning of his arrest last February he broken any communication.
As a result of the Delorme operation, directed by the National Court and promoted by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, the PSOE made a sanitary cordon with both Koldo García and Ábalos. “Are you disappointed with Koldo?” the socialist senator asked him today. “I have had so many disappointments in recent times that it seems that I collect disappointments,” said the former minister and former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE.
The party has sidelined Ábalos despite the fact that, as he has clarified, he is not being investigated or there is any suspicion about him. Although the party's former number three did not want to draw blood against the party, he has acknowledged that he does not know any precedent for what they have done with him, by asking for his deputy's certificate and suspending him from membership without there being any judicial process against him. and that is why he has announced that “he is going to appeal” this decision.
“And you ask me if I think my reputation is damaged?” he pointed out to the Basque senator Estefanía Beltrán. “They have suspended me from militancy due to political responsibility,” recalled Ábalos, who has assured that he believes that the PSOE made this movement influenced by the environment and urged to give an immediate response after the arrest of his former advisor. “I already knew that everything that was going to happen had to happen. I knew it was a toast to the sun. I don't have much of a political future, even before the mixed group, I was already withdrawing," he clarified.
This same senator took the opportunity to ask him if it seems normal that Sánchez did not call her to talk to him in this crisis, to which Ábalos responded again with his political rhetoric. “Normal things are normal for me… Normality is not an absolute term. It's like friendship. It is a relative term highly influenced by environments,” he added.
Ábalos has recognized that Koldo García was a trusted advisor, whom he could count on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After the first information, the former minister has lowered his tone against his former advisor and has defended that his asset increases, which he claimed to be unaware of, would have occurred after leaving the Ministry in 2021. He has also taken the opportunity to deny the existence of any plot within of his Ministry. “I don't have to admit any guilt because I don't have any. “This about Redemptorism…” he ironically responded to questions from the Confederal Left senator.
The former minister has acknowledged that it was the “human factor” that led him to take Koldo to the Ministry, because he was a person he trusted. One of the points that the UCO highlighted in its police reports is that Ábalos placed García, in addition to being an advisor, as a Renfe advisor. Instead of denying it, he acknowledged that he gave Koldo and the rest of his advisors a position as advisors, among other things, so that they could have an economic supplement.
Ábalos believes that he has been the victim of a “parallel trial” in which the presumption of innocence is not respected: “With everything I have experienced I can only trust in one thing: justice. And not because of the virtues it may have, because of necessity. Because I no longer have anyone to trust.”
For the former socialist leader, there has been a “circus” around this case, even if it is “crushing people,” and he has criticized the fact that information from the judicial summary has been published in the media.
Ábalos has given his arguments to all the accusations. From the PP he has taken the opportunity to ask him if he used a senior official in the Ministry to give him confidential information knowing that they were already being investigated, as can be seen from the police investigation.
The former minister clarified that the information provided to him can be found on the ministry's website and the transparency portal and has denied that they had a tip that they were being investigated but that it was public that the PP had denounced several mask contracts in 2022 during the pandemic by companies linked to his ministry.
The commission has been used to ask about other issues, such as 'delcygate' or certain trips of dubious purpose. Regarding the presence of Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of Venezuela, at the Barajas airport, Ábalos has clarified that he went there on a “diplomatic mission” to prevent her from getting off the plane as there is an express prohibition by the European Union due to sanctions on members. of the Venezuelan government.
As he explained, the person who should have attended was the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Arantxa González Laya, but she was traveling and asked him to attend. The Venezuelan tourism minister was also traveling on the plane, who did have authorization to set foot on Spanish soil to attend the Fitur tourism fair. “When it was learned that the vice president was traveling on that flight, the alarms went off in case Rodríguez was tempted to travel from the plane. And it was avoided. “It was a successful diplomatic mission,” he noted.
Ábalos has taken the opportunity to deny that she came with forty suitcases, which it has been speculated could have been carrying any illegal material. “There were no suitcases. It was a tremendously installed hoax. They only carried personal luggage. "It escapes all rational logic," argued the former minister, who has gone so far as to ironize whether these could be full of gold or cocaine. “It's so absurd…” Furthermore, he recalled that the PP has already denounced these events and it has been archived by several courts. “Only the court of God remains,” he snapped.
This statement led him to have a clash with the PP senator. “You say that we should try to pack 40 suitcases of cocaine or gold and see if the plane takes off. I don't know, maybe you have tried it and 37 is the limit.” To this, Ábalos has not remained silent: “We will try it together if you want.
In his defense, the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE has denied having used money from the party or the ministry to pay for a family trip to the Balearic Islands. Indeed, he made the trip in question but paid for it out of his own pocket and to be able to “conciliate family life.”
Another trip brought into question is one he made in July 2021, recently dismissed by Pedro Sánchez, to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic). Certain information, accompanied by photographs, affirms that he made that trip together with Koldo García and at least two other people. Ábalos has denied this, stating that he “went with his children on a family trip.”
