The former Minister of Health and leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, assured this Tuesday that he would have "no problem" in attending the Congress of Deputies or the Senate if he is summoned to give explanations as a result of the Koldo case, in which he is investigated Koldo García, who was an advisor to former Minister of Transportation José Luis Ábalos. Illa has promised "absolute collaboration" if he is asked for explanations.
At a press conference from the Parliament, where the leader of the opposition in Catalonia appeared to explain the budget agreement reached with the Government of the Generalitat, Illa highlighted his commitment to "maximum transparency" and to being "relentless against corruption." ". "Let it go to the end," he has demanded, while deploring the behavior being investigated in the so-called Koldo case. "It is difficult for me to understand that there are people who, in such difficult circumstances as those we live in, take personal advantage," he lamented.
Illa has listed the times he appeared in parliament to give explanations as a result of the pandemic as proof of his willingness to collaborate. "I appeared 22 times, answered 5,800 written questions in Congress, 2,200 in the Senate and attended 39 oral questions and interpellations. Do you think I have any problem attending if I am summoned in Congress or the Senate?" he commented. .
Despite the stain that this case represents for the public service and the consequences in terms of political disaffection, Illa wanted to highlight that the "general norm" that he found during his time at the head of the Ministry of Health was that of "public servants who They gave everything, some even their lives" to fight the pandemic.
"The bad example, the hateful example of a few people will not change the general image that I saw, of public servants like the top of a pine tree," he insisted.
But several Catalan political groups have used this issue to criticize the PSC leader. The president of the PP of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, has called Illa "the butler of ERC" for his budget agreement and has accused him of trying to "hide" these days so as not to be singled out for the Koldo case.
In statements from the Mobile World Congress, Fernández said that with the announcement of this budget agreement Illa is trying to "silence the explanations he must give for the Koldo case" as former Minister of Health. And although he has said to "respect the presumption of his innocence", he has demanded that he "give explanations" because "at the moment he is absolutely hidden" and seeks the "protection of his pro-independence partners."
Also the leader of Ciudadanos in the Parliament, Carlos Carrizosa, has invited Illa to give explanations in Congress "as soon as possible", warning that if he does not do so his party will consider encouraging him to do so in the Parliament. Carrizosa has also called on the PSC leader to ask the current Minister of Health, Mónica García, to carry out an audit of the ministry's actions while Illa directed it, as the current Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has done.
