The Government and the PSOE have tried to build a firewall around the “Ábalos case” to limit wear and tear and they do so by clinging to an argument: the “forcefulness” with which they acted against the former Secretary of Organization of the party and Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Executive. To this end, they state that just five days after the first information was revealed that compromised his right-hand man, Koldo García, Ferraz acted decisively, opening an expulsion file from the PSOE and demanding the delivery of the deputy’s certificate, which finally It did not happen and he ended up with Ábalos on the Mixed Group bench after kicking him out of the Socialist Parliamentary Group.
Nine months later, his departure has still not occurred. The aforementioned expulsion file does not have a resolution as immediate as its opening and the process is guaranteed, in terms of the possibility of presenting allegations by the expelled person. Ábalos is running out of deadlines and has even asked twice – the last one at the beginning of last October – to be reinstated in the party. However, the judicial investigation that is progressing in parallel to the organic process has produced sufficient progress for the PSOE to already anticipate that the expulsion will end up materializing imminently. There is a time horizon that cannot be exceeded for reasons of political credibility. According to consulted sources, Ábalos’ departure cannot be extended beyond this month of November. This is not trivial, The PSOE celebrates its 41st Federal Congress on December 29, 30 and 1 in Sevillean appointment in which the party wants to advance in a process of internal renewal and political rearmament in the face of a new electoral cycle. “Abalos cannot arrive in Seville as a militant,” socialist sources consulted resolve.
Firstly, because Ábalos’s departure is exposed as example of exemplarity and forcefulness against corruptiona conviction that brought Pedro Sánchez to power through the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy in 2018. And secondly, because they understand that any allegation made by the former Secretary of Organization has already been surpassed by the reality of the facts, once the Supreme Court charged him with four crimes of manifest seriousness this Thursday: embezzlement, bribery, influence peddling and membership in a criminal organization. In the party, which had already planned the expulsion after the forceful accusations in the report of the Central Operational Unit (UCO), which placed him as the “head” of the “criminal plot”, they are now categorical, once the investigation has been assumed by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
In the party and in the Government they are thus trying to distance themselves from who was Sánchez’s all-powerful right hand both in Ferraz and in Moncloa and who has now been relegated to the classification of “that person,” as PSOE spokesperson Esther Peña recently referred to Ábalos. Government sources continue to convey an imposed calm, ensuring that they are not concerned about what their former minister may contribute to the investigation. Other sources, as published in this newspaper, are more concerned, assuring that the former Secretary of the Socialist Organization has already conveyed to those around him that “he will not eat this alone.” In any case, the impact of the case on the credibility of the party is already a fact that is regretted internally. Others, however, continue to claim that they have cut all ties with Ábalos to clearly mark the distances with his figure and the differences with respect to the PP in how they behave when a case of corruption is discovered in their ranks.