In the institutional clash that the PSOE and the PP are delivering through the respective commissions of inquiry initiated in Congress and the Senate for the purchase of health equipment during the pandemic, yesterday was the turn of the former.
The socialists agreed with the investiture bloc on a unified list of attendees whose main novelty is the presence of the former Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos -something not initially foreseen since Ferraz-, as well as that of several presidents regional representatives of the PP, such as Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid), Alfonso Rueda (Galicia), Juan Manuel Moreno (Andalusia) or Marga Prohens (the Balearic Islands).
However, the first politician to appear, before even appearing in the Senate, where he has been required for the 24th, will be the former Minister of Health and candidate of the PSC in the Catalan elections, Salvador Illa, who returned yesterday to show understanding with his quote: “I already explained myself every time I was asked, but I understand that, as Minister of Health during the most critical stage of the pandemic, both Congress and the Senate want to know my opinion”, he declared to Cuatro.
The urgency of the PSOE, to the point of skipping the usual margin of fifteen days that is usually applied between summons and appearance, has a double objective. On the one hand, to prevent Illa’s intervention from coinciding with the central phase of the Catalan electoral campaign, in which the PSC candidate is the leader in the polls. And on the other hand, to diminish the interest that his subsequent appearance in the Upper House, presided over by the PP, may have. This shows the undisguised struggle that the socialists and the populists are maintaining for the control of the report of the investigation for which public auditors of the European Union, autonomous regions and the central government have also been summoned.
The list of those confirmed also includes the President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, and the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, as well as businessmen Víctor de Aldama, Íñigo Rotaeche and Juan Carlos Cueto.
As for the names on which there is no agreement at the moment, they will be voted on separately at a future meeting of the commission. This is the case, for example, of the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose presence is requested by ERC, Bildu and BNG; of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s partner, Alberto González Amador, whom Sumar i Junts want to interrogate, and of Begoña Gómez, wife of the president of the central government, Pedro Sánchez, requested by Vox.
Given the cohesion of the investiture block, the PP had no choice yesterday that its list of attendees would prosper. After watching helplessly how the PSOE returned last week’s move in the Senate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo denounced that the commission will end up investigating “the prosecutors and the positions of the PP that have nothing to do [with the Koldo case]. It’s a commission to try to cover up the alleged corrupt practices of the PSOE and that way people won’t know.”
