“You have a 24-hour deadline,” announced the spokesperson for the PSOE executive, Esther Peña. Pedro Sánchez's express order has been to clear this Monday all shadows of corruption in the Government and in the PSOE with the departure from the scene of former minister José Luis Ábalos, after his former personal assistant, Koldo García, has been charged. in an alleged case of corruption for the collection of illegal commissions in contracts for the purchase and sale of masks from various public administrations in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The forecast is that Ábalos will resign his membership in Congress today.
While Sánchez himself accompanied King Felipe VI this morning at the inauguration of the Mobile in Barcelona, the PSOE executive met in Ferraz to launch the negotiated departure of Ábalos, which began with the formal request, already transferred officially to the former minister, to leave his seat due to political responsibility, despite not being involved in the judicial investigation or in the accusation of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
“The federal executive commission of the PSOE has decided, unanimously, to ask José Luis Ábalos to deliver his minutes to the socialist parliamentary group,” announced Ferraz's spokesperson, Esther Peña. The terms of the agreement have been to support, while demanding his seat to assume political responsibility, the innocence of the former minister and former organizational secretary of the PSOE in the Koldo case. “We know that Ábalos is not investigated, nor accused, nor charged, nor does his name appear in the investigation,” Peña warned. “We do not set ourselves up as judges, we are not prosecutors, we do not judge. But despite everything, the federal executive commission considers that there is a political responsibility,” she stressed.
For this reason, Peña pointed out, “we hope that the minutes will be delivered in the next 24 hours.” Thus, he said, the former minister was informed at that very moment, after the current organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, had contacted Ábalos, along with other socialist leaders.
In a defensive and at the same time offensive strategy, Sánchez has thus sacrificed Ábalos, to then direct the focus against the Popular Party, with the intention that this firewall will be enough to stop his offensive due to the Koldo case. Peña has announced that the PSOE will immediately register in Congress the request for the creation of an investigative commission, "to analyze the purchase of medical supplies from public administrations at the time of the coronavirus pandemic."
The first task that will occupy this investigative commission in Congress, he has assured, will be the Koldo case, of course. But not only. Peña has thus pointed out that the objective of this parliamentary investigation is that “everything must be known, nothing can remain in dark corners of headquarters paid for with black money,” he has pointed out, in reference to the PP headquarters in Genoa. “There is no place for the corrupt here,” he stressed, referring to the PSOE. But then he warned that “it is necessary that all the facts be known.” “No one should feel intimidated by this commission of inquiry, we from the PSOE are not. What we do is rebel against the shamelessness of all those who wanted to profit while our compatriots died from covid,” Peña said.
“In the next few hours, I am convinced that there will be reactions to this socialist initiative, we must be very attentive,” she warned, in the face of “small or large reluctance, even strange excuses” for not supporting this commission of inquiry. “I would ask myself what they are due to, why those bouts of fear or that possible scare, intimidation or fear that some may have,” she stated, alluding to the PP.
The PSOE spokesperson thus recalled the case of alleged irregular sale of masks that affected the brother of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “We will have time to know the details in that commission of inquiry,” she noted.
“Our organization is embarrassed by everything we have known, I don't care about the case of the commission agent Ayuso or the case of Koldo García, it is absolutely disgusting,” he highlighted. And he has regretted that the PP did not promote a commission of investigation when another alleged corruption plot involved the Madrid president. “It is we, from the maximum responsibility, who assume the attack, the offensive, putting an end to all doubts and making those who at some point during the pandemic do what they should not pay pay,” he assured. “No one can profit from pain.” The spokesperson for the federal executive has distinguished the reaction of the PSOE, in the face of any shadow of corruption, from the “inaction” of the PP in the face of allegedly similar cases. “We are not equal,” Peña stressed. “In the face of a possible case of corruption, we stand up, act and assume responsibilities from the PSOE,” she insisted.
Peña has already taken it for granted, in any case, that Ábalos will hand in his deputy certificate today. Tomorrow, at the latest. Next Wednesday, Sánchez himself plans to submit to the opposition's questions in the Government control session in Congress, where the PP will fire at him with all its forces over the Koldo case. And the forecast is that the former minister will not attend this parliamentary session, because he has already renounced his membership as a deputy. “Ábalos is the best example of party orthodoxy, pure commitment and pure respect for the history of this party. That is why I have no doubt that Ábalos will act accordingly for this greater good, which is the PSOE,” he stated. “It is not the fault of anyone who does what he owes,” Ferraz's spokesperson concluded.
