A corruption scandal surrounding the sale of masks during the Covid-19 pandemic and involving a collaborator of a former minister very close to Pedro Sánchez is embarrassing the Spanish Prime Minister, who is trying to cover up a politically explosive affair. On Monday, the Socialist Party (PSOE) of Pedro Sánchez demanded that this former Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, resign from the Chamber of Deputies, where he still holds a seat since leaving the government in 2021 during a reshuffle.
“José Luis Ábalos is not indicted (…), we are not prosecutors, nor judges”, but the Socialist Party “considers that there is a political responsibility” and “we therefore call on him to leave its headquarters within 24 hours,” said the party’s spokesperson, Esther Peña. The matter is very sensitive, because José Luis Ábalos was for years an important member of the inner circle of the Spanish Prime Minister and one of the few to have remained loyal to him after his ouster in 2016 from the head of the party following disastrous electoral results.
Re-elected secretary general of the PSOE in 2017 by activists, Pedro Sánchez then made José Luis Ábalos number three in the party and brought him into the government after coming to power in 2018.
An apartment in the name of his two-year-old daughter
Suspected of having received hidden commissions on contracts for the sale of masks to the public administration during the pandemic, José Luis Ábalos’ trusted man, Koldo García, was arrested by the police on Wednesday. This man of imposing stature, who was always in the shadow of his boss, is accused of having used his functions to facilitate the obtaining of contracts for the sale of masks, at the worst moment of the pandemic, for the benefit of a company which then paid him commissions. Revelations surrounding his alleged personal enrichment have been making headlines since last week.
According to the complaint made by the special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Koldo García notably purchased three apartments between 2020 and 2022 in the seaside resort of Benidorm (south-east), one of which was in the name of his two-year-old daughter. at the time, in order to cover their tracks. The prosecution notes in its complaint that the amount of money received in cash by Mr. García and not coming from his usual activities “particularly increased in March 2020, when the contracts were awarded”. Spain was then on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic and subject to one of the most severe confinements in the world.
“First piece”
This affair is very embarrassing for Pedro Sánchez, especially as it comes at the start of a legislature complicated by the fragility of its majority, which depends on the goodwill of the Catalan separatists. He also affirmed on Saturday that he would be “relentless” with corruption. “This government, which was born from the need to put an end to the corruption of the former administration (…), is the standard bearer of exemplarity,” he said in reference to his arrival in power in 2018, thanks to a motion of censure against the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy, mired in a huge scandal. “Whoever commits a mistake must pay,” he insisted, without directly mentioning the name of José Luis Ábalos.
The main right-wing opposition group, the Popular Party (PP), said Monday, through its spokesperson Borja Semper, “convinced that Ábalos is the first piece, but not the last,” to fall . “The Socialist Party is trying to build a firewall around Sánchez,” but “no one believes it,” he added, implying that this scandal could directly affect the Prime Minister. In order to “remove any doubt” about accusations of enrichment through contracts during the pandemic, the Socialist Party announced that it would propose the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
A figure of the PP, the president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, was shaken in 2022 by a controversy surrounding a commission of more than 200,000 euros received by her brother on the sale of sanitary equipment in 2020. “He “It is absolutely disgusting to see that some people wanted (…) to enrich themselves while we were going through a difficult situation,” insisted Esther Peña, citing Koldo García and the brother of Isabel Díaz Ayuso by name.