The arrest and bringing to justice of Koldo García Izaguirre, who was José Luis Ábalos’ man for everything during his time as Minister of Transport and secretary of organization of the PSOE until July 2021, has caused surprise and even stupefaction in the Moncloa and in Ferraz. His possible involvement in a case of alleged corruption due to the collection of illegal commissions in public contracts for the purchase of masks during the pandemic also directly impacts one of the flags with which Pedro Sánchez became president of the Government in 2018: the fight against the corruption that encouraged the motion of censure that overthrew Mariano Rajoy.
Pedro Sánchez himself, this Wednesday from Rabat, already showed “all my disapproval and absolute reproach” if this alleged case of corruption is confirmed, which has once again put the former minister Ábalos, now a deputy in Congress, in the target; and in which the current organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, is also affected, who was the one who brought Koldo García to Madrid and connected him with Ábalos, and who could also affect the autonomous governments of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, chaired in the moment of the events investigated by the socialists Francina Armengol – today president of Congress – and Ángel Víctor Torres – current Minister of Territorial Policy.
In Moncloa and Ferraz they claim to be awaiting the course of the judicial investigations, and limit themselves to defending that the full weight of the law falls on anyone who may have committed acts of corruption. But, for now, the PSOE leadership limits the case to Koldo García – who is no longer a socialist militant, so they cannot adopt any measure -, they defend that Ábalos does not have to hand over his deputy record, since that the police and judicial investigation does not implicate him, and above all they rule out any shadow of doubt about Santos Cerdán.
But who is Koldo García? Pedro Sánchez met him in 2014, during the internal campaign for the primaries in which he won, for the first time, the leadership of the PSOE. Koldo García was a veteran Navarrese socialist, councilor in the municipality of Huarte (Pamplona). Security guard and bodyguard for politicians in Navarra, such as Nicolás Redondo, in the lead years of ETA, he was a union member of the UGT and a member of the Stop Evictions Platform. “The last socialist aizkolari,” he defined himself, in a profile that Sánchez published on his Facebook in June 2014, shortly before becoming general secretary of the PSOE.
In Ferraz they now remember that, when ETA terrorism hit hard in Navarra, barely three socialist councilors “dared to show their faces” on the ground. Among them, Koldo García, but also Santos Cerdán, who was a councilor in his hometown, Milagro. Santos Cerdán and Koldo García opted for Sánchez as leader of the PSOE, and also remained on his team when he was defenestrated in the convulsive federal committee on October 1, 2016, like José Luis Ábalos. In June 2017, Sánchez recovered the leadership of the PSOE, and appointed Ábalos as secretary of organization and Cerdán as secretary of territorial coordination in Ferraz.
Santos Cerdán then brought Koldo García to Madrid, and placed him as José Luis Ábalos’ driver. But in June 2018, Pedro Sánchez won the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy and became President of the Government. Ábalos was then appointed Minister of Development, and at the same time maintained his position as organizational secretary of the PSOE.
The presence of Koldo García, always at Ábalos’ side, initially as the driver and man for everything for the minister and leader of Ferraz, then began to attract more attention, since he was not his chief of staff or his head of communication, although At times he also seemed to assume these functions. So he was unofficially considered Ábalos’ “personal assistant.” Very folksy, and always two steps ahead or behind the minister, his imposing figure never went unnoticed during the three and a half years that Ábalos was in the Government and in the leadership of the PSOE. Finally, yes, Ábalos appointed him a director of one of the public companies attached to the Ministry of Transport, Renfe Mercancías.
The abrupt dismissal of Ábalos as Minister of Development and Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, in the extensive remodeling of the Government carried out by Sánchez in July 2021, caused the departure of Koldo García from the scene. Nothing more was heard from him in the political sphere. Until, now, he has reappeared by surprise as the protagonist of the court chronicle.
