The report from the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF), which appears in the summary of the “Koldo case”, confirms that the Tax Agency made information requests in January 2022 on the contracts awarded to Management Solutions by the Ministries of Transportation and Interior. The date of these information requests, which officially raise the alarm about what had been brewing in the environment of former Minister José Luis Ábalos, reveals the decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to take Ábalos in his list for the general elections in July of last year. By then, as confirmed by the aforementioned ONIF report, within his Administration they were already aware that he was being investigated through his advisor and most trusted person, Koldo García.
Ábalos was dismissed as Minister of Transport and General Secretary of the PSOE in July 2021. A dismissal that was characterized by a lack of explanations and transparency. This movement was as unexplained as the subsequent decision to rehabilitate him in July 2023 on the electoral lists, which was followed by his subsequent expulsion in February 2024, after the start of the “Koldo case”, a decision that reopened old wounds and called into question the coherence of the Government in its fight against corruption. Since then, rumors have not stopped spreading about the reasons for his dismissal, which range from his personal life to his connection with the illegal visit of the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to Spain. All of these changes by the PSOE have allowed him to maintain his record as a deputy, thanks to Sánchez’s decision, which grants him the privilege of capacity and for his case to end up in the Supreme Court.
By the way, the initial investigation is from the Treasury, but the vice president and head of that ministry, María Jesús Montero, has refused to transfer it to the Senate, despite the requests registered by the PP.
The judge of the National Court investigating the “Koldo case”, Ismael Moreno, yesterday took a statement as witnesses from the head of Budgets of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Jorge Meana, and the former secretary general and of the Post Office Council, Julio González García. The judge is investigating the advisor of former minister Ábalos and other people for the alleged plot that would have paid commissions to obtain awards for the sale of masks during the pandemic. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office attributes alleged crimes of criminal organization, money laundering, bribery, crimes against the Public Treasury and influence peddling.
Last Wednesday, the President of the Government refused to reveal how many times he or his wife, Begoña Gómez, met with the commission agent of the plot, Víctor de Aldama, now in prison for VAT fraud in the purchase of hydrocarbons. Various reports have suggested that they could have had a direct relationship, but the president has neither wanted to confirm nor deny it.
It was the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who demanded that he explain to the Spaniards how many times, where and what Sánchez and Gómez spoke with Víctor de Aldama about. The response of the PSOE leader was a flight forward that did not clear up the mystery. The latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, incorporated into the case summary, draws a map of subplots that draws a dark future for its protagonists. The new revelations about the commission agent also place him as a central figure in other networks, being described by the UCO as the “corrupting nexus” in the “Koldo case.”
Today there is a Government control session in the Senate, in which once again the President of the Government will be absent. The opposition will direct its entire political offensive against corruption against the vice president and Minister of Finance, who will be criticized, among other things, for hiding information from Parliament that is already in the hands of the Civil Guard. It is foreseeable that Montero will use as an escape route, as he did last week, the reminder of the PP corruption cases, without giving explanations for what is currently on the table of the UCO and the judges.
In front of him will be the PP’s strategy of turning parliamentary sessions into a monograph on corruption, with different and successive questions to the different members of the Government. The PP knows that the political agenda will continue to be set by information linked to these scandals and they will not miss any opportunity to “bite” the socialist leader for the “Ábalos case” and for the investigation into his wife. In their argument they have already placed Sánchez as “number one”, echoing how they referred to him in the Koldo plot, and, in addition, they hope that new data will emerge that will tighten the siege on the President of the Government.