The President of the Government and leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, is not willing to make a move for now. But internal pressure is beginning to grow in the Executive and in the leadership of the PSOE for the former minister José Luis Ábalos to hand over his certificate of deputy in Congress after the ongoing judicial investigation of his former personal assistant, Koldo García, in the face of an alleged corruption case for the collection of illegal commissions on the sale of masks during the pandemic to various public administrations.
This became clear this Friday, when the first vice president of the Government, and deputy general secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, was asked if she believes that Ábalos should give up his seat. “It seems that there is no type of criminal accusation or crime against Ábalos, therefore it is up to him to make any decision,” said Montero. But then she warned: “I know what I would do.” “I can’t say what Ábalos wants to do or is going to stop doing, but I know what I would do,” the vice president remarked, at an event at the Joly Forum held in Cádiz.
Montero has thus agreed with the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who also this Friday assured, regarding whether the former head of Transport and former secretary of organization of the PSOE should abandon his seat due to the ‘Koldo case’: “Each one has “You have to know what you have to do at all times.”
Pedro Sánchez himself already “flatly” distanced himself from this murky matter of alleged corruption, last Wednesday from Rabat, and showed his “disapproval and absolute reproach” if it is confirmed by the judicial investigation. In Moncloa and Ferraz they cling to “the full weight of the law” falling against corruption, but they have remained waiting for now to know the scope of the open investigations. Initially, they have limited the case exclusively to Koldo García, who was personal assistant to José Luis Ábalos during his time as Minister of Transport and organizational secretary of the PSOE until July 2021. Therefore, they have defended that Ábalos would not have to hand over his record as a deputy in Congress, since, at least for now, he has not been implicated in this scandal.
“Let’s see what comes out of the summary,” they have alleged in the leadership of the PSOE, calling for calm so as not to rush. “We will have to see,” these sources have insisted, leaving in the bedroom the decision to act against Ábalos in case the matter could spill over, as a firewall so that the stain of the scandal does not continue to escalate. “We have to wait and see,” they have confirmed in the socialist group in Congress, lest it be that the firebreak is overcome and there is no longer an option to control the fire.
The problem is that this case directly impacts one of the flags that Pedro Sánchez raises as the key to his political project and his “clean and transparent” government, that of the fight against corruption that encouraged precisely the motion of censure that brought down the then head of the Executive and president of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, and who brought the general secretary of the PSOE to the Moncloa in 2018. For this reason, socialist voices are growing that call for stopping any suspicion of doubt that could harm the Government and the PSOE.
For now, the PSOE leadership has not been able to adopt any measure against Koldo García, since he stopped being a member of the party by not paying the corresponding fees. However, his wife, Patricia Úriz, who is also being investigated in this alleged case of corruption, has been suspended from militancy. Just as Koldo García was appointed advisor to some of the public companies attached to the Ministry of Transportation, such as Renfe Mercancías, Patricia Úriz was also secretary in this Ministry during the time that Ábalos was head of the portfolio, between 2018 and 2021. In July of this last year, Ábalos was dismissed by Sánchez, in the extensive remodeling of the Government that he carried out at that time, and he also left the organization secretary of the PSOE, in which he was replaced by Santos Cerdán. But Ábalos maintained his seat for Valencia in the Congress of Deputies, an act that he revalidated after the general elections of July 2023.
