In the struggle between PSOE and PP to organize their respective forces in Congress as a counterweight to the Senate, and vice versa, yesterday it was the turn of the socialists, who maneuvered together with their investiture partners to appoint the Alicante deputy Alejandro Soler Mur as president of the commission that will investigate in the Lower House “the contracting processes for the acquisition of medical supplies by public administrations during the pandemic.”
As soon as he was named, Soler Mur gave a period of one week for the parties to present their proposals for appearances. But, judging by what was revealed yesterday by some and others, there will hardly be any surprises.
The PSOE – as Sumar confirmed with his intention to call both Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her partner, Alberto González, to testify – wants the Congressional commission to investigate the purchases made by all administrations, including those chaired by the PP, like the Community of Madrid. Quite the opposite of what was decided on Monday by the Popular Party in the Senate, where they used their absolute majority to reduce the investigations into the contracts of Koldo García, former advisor to former Minister José Luis Ábalos. Especially those signed with the Balearic government during the era of Francina Armengol, today president of Congress.
Aware of its numerical inferiority in the Lower House, the PP counterattacked by agreeing with Vox on the starting positions that correspond to these two groups at the commission table. Specifically, those of second vice president and second secretary. So both positions will be occupied by deputies elected by the Balearic Islands.
A complete declaration of intentions from the PP to, to the extent of its possibilities, take advantage of the opportunities that may arise to relocate the focus of the commission on the contracts signed by Armengol within the Koldo case.
This stubbornness of the PP in trying to overthrow the president of Congress was responded to by the Government. Specifically through the mouth of Sumar's spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, who announced his intention to summon Ayuso and his partner: “Quirón is the best client of the government that privatizes public health in Madrid. It turns out that the company that makes money with the privatization that Ayuso applies makes his partner make money later. For us it is quite clear that there are signs here that privatization and corruption go hand in hand,” he argued.
From there, nothing more. Both the PSOE and its partners chose to hide the rest of those appearing. Although Errejón, of course, demanded “containment” from all of them to leave out those charges that do not appear in ongoing judicial matters. As is the case of both the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose names appear in some of the pools managed by PP and PSOE.
In this context, and with Sánchez on an official trip to the Middle East, the Government control session in the Senate focused on the vice presidents Teresa Ribera and Yolanda Díaz and several ministers, who stood up to the PP senators' attempt to center the debate in the Koldo case.
In a less tense atmosphere than on previous occasions, for the PP it was a somewhat weak session, not only due to the absence of the president, but also because some members of the Government – the vice president María Jesús Montero and the ministers Pilar Alegría and Óscar Puente – alleged agenda problems to postpone his appearance, which led the opposition to point out that the Executive has gone “in panic” when seeing that Koldo García “begins to pull the blanket”, in reference to recent information and interviews. They have given the “scare,” criticized PP sources.
“This is an outrageous decision that clearly shows the attitude of Sánchez and his circle towards the plot that threatens him,” they indicated before the debate, in which the popular senator Francisco Bernabé denounced the “pestilence.” of a corruption for which he held Sánchez most responsible. “What miserable words!” replied Minister Félix Bolaños, who asked to stop “mudding” politics.
