The PSOE also has a former minister linked to the lobby sector: José Blanco. The “Montoro Case” has amplified the impact of this activity that, by its very nature, has close ties with the administration and with the politicians who perform in it, since it seeks to influence the legislative processes that affect any sector. But Moncloa now renieges the former Minister of Development, partner and accent founder -a consulting firm specialized in public affairs -, in the middle of the lobby crisis for the maneuvers of economic team, the firm linked to Cristóbal Montoro.
The sources consulted in the hard nucleus The Executive deny that José Blanco has any influence despite the fact that José Luis Ábalos attributed him in his statement in the Supreme Court, before the magistrate Leopoldo Puente, an intermediation to recommend the signing of Isabel Pardo de Vera as head of Adif, which was finally the Elgaida. «His influence in Moncloa is equal to zero. And in the ministries it is similar, ”he explains to this newspaper a high governmental position. In the Council of Ministers they also disable the ability of the former socialist minister to influence the government: “Pepe Blanco is a fan compared to Montoro”explains a minister. But the truth is that the Government is unable to separate itself from Blanco, among other things, because it was the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, who signed in January the Draft Law of Transparency and Integrity of the activities of the interest groups.
The striking thing is that it was López who presented it, because its relationship with Pepe Blanco goes back years ago. The also leader of the Socialist Party in Madrid is together with the president himself, Pedro Sánchez, and the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, Antonio Hernando, one of those known as “The Blanco Boys.”
The three arrived at the direction of the PSOE in 2000 by their hand and worked on all the campaigns of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The three are old friends, although in politics friendship is paused at convenience. The socialist leader, from the tranquility that gives power, was responsible for sewing his in the great government crisis of the summer of 2021, when he took out the former powerful Iván Redondo from his cabinet and led to presidency to Óscar López. Two months later he repeated Hernando.
In fact, Hernando was chosen by López as his number two in the last remodeling of the Executive and took him to the Ministry for Digital Transformation, he raised not a few misgivings in the PSOE, because he involved placing two men close to Blanco in the Quid of the regulations of televisions in full media offensive of the Executive. In any case, in the government they admit that if the regulation of interest groups is approved, White will lift the eyebrow with total security. But it seems not to matter to them. One of the PSOE’s obsessions is that a similar case with white does not explode.
Spain still has not regulated the activity of Lobby professionals. And the European Commission continues to struck the country for it, because in Brussels thousands of them with total naturalness and meet with the European reasparents. The European Commission, in its latest report on the rule of law claims that the country “continues the current procedure to approve legislation on lobbies, including the establishment of a mandatory public registry of lobists.”
The draft law, which was direct to Congress from the Council of Ministers -approved in the second round -, It was lost in the legislative process. It is currently in the amendment phase after overcoming the totality debate. But this Monday the PSOE promised to “promote it just around the holidays, that is, continue the entire process: presentation, commission and finally decide whether it is approved there or rises to full, which indicates that it will be where it will arrive, because the socialists believe they have found in the” Montoro case “a table of salvation to protect themselves from their own scandals.
The spokeswoman, Montse Mínguez, went out yesterday to qualify the “Montoro Case” as the most serious in Spain. But not all in the party share the strategy. Some socialists admit in private that “throwing trash” with the PP does not benefit either. “In the draw game, Vox wins, because it embraces us,” explains a socialist source.