For some time now in Valencia it has been said of José Luís Ábalos “he has more lives than a cat.” But there is another expression, said by the former minister himself, that fits better with his profile: “I never give up, even if they hit me hard.” He said it twenty years ago, at a lunch with journalists, when he was a PSPV councilor in Valencia, many years before he led the campaign, the strategy and the victory, against the odds, that would return Pedro Sánchez to the General Secretariat of the PSOE. Ábalos, the man who was a key player in the Government and in the party, who was removed by Sánchez himself in a decision that was never explained, and who was recovered on the lists for 23-J, is now back at the point of look. All for the Koldo case, for a matter of alleged corruption by a former advisor with the purchase of masks during the pandemic. Bad business.
We Valencian journalists know the former minister well, a passionate, intelligent, tough man, an excellent fighter, ambitious and with the ability to relate to the media. Also to his people, with an almost mystical loyalty (like Koldo García Izaguirre was). In fact, he has led one of the most important political families of the PSPV for decades; federation that he wanted to lead in 2000 in a process that he lost to Joan Ignasi Pla.
Despite this, it has always been present in all the organic processes of the PSPV, reaching levels of power. But his greatest political commitment was to work for the resurrection of Pedro Sánchez in the PSOE when he was executed by the federal committee: Ábalos was the man who accompanied him in all the victories and the best shield of the Spanish president against the challenges of the opposition.
Just one example, when the now President of the Government hit the road to seduce the PSOE militancy and stopped in Valencia, he slept at the Valencian leader’s house. In other words, without Ábalos, Pedro Sánchez would have had it much more difficult. His loyalty to Sánchez was such that he supported the mayor of Burjassot, Rafa García, to compete in primaries with Ximo Puig in 2017, even though the leader of the PSPV was already president of the Generalitat Valenciana.
This Valencian politician, who trained in his youth in the ranks of the Communist Party (1978-1981), was elected Minister of Development, a role that he combined with the Organization Secretariat of the PSOE. He was Sánchez’s strong man. A situation that was cut short in July 2021, when the President of the Government removed him from his executive and, later, from the Party Organization. There were no explanations, and suspicions about Ábalos multiplied. There were several hypotheses: from the episode of Delcy Rodríguez’s landing in Barajas or alleged irregularities in the ministry. Nobody said anything or clarified anything.
From day to night, the man who was everything to Sánchez was marginalized, separated from organic and institutional functions. In an interview with this newspaper, asked about the issue, Ábalos said that “this, which sometimes seems like a settling of scores, a kind of fall from grace, is not typical of our party, where a democratic culture still prevails.”
But in the last elections of 23-J, and against what was speculated, José Luís Ábalos was appointed as number two of the PSOE to Congress. The man who seemed like he would no longer have any opportunity in the game, and with Sánchez, returned to a prominent position to continue in institutional activity. In parallel, his presence has become strong in many television and radio talk shows. And in the Valencian federation he has been supporting Alejandro Soler, one of the pre-candidates to replace Ximo Puig as the general secretary of the PSPV, who will finally be occupied by Diana Morant. It is not ruled out that some of his faithful end up occupying a position in the new organizational chart that will be configured at the extraordinary congress in March.
One more fact: Ábalos’s name was suggested to go on the PSOE list for the European Parliament in the June elections. Now, his chances are gone and retirement in Brussels becomes an impossible wish to come true.
The Koldo case opens a new chapter that could affect him, since the detainee was part of his close, trusted team. But as long as more details of the judicial investigation are not known, and knowing the career of the former Valencian minister, ending it is always a risky statement. At that meal he said something else, in case it helps: “I almost always win.”
