An extraordinary photographic work by Óscar Corral, of the Efe agency, taken in 2016 at the Galician festival of A Rapa das Bestas, illustrates very well the current Spanish political moment. There is the spirit of the time. The horses move very restlessly, huddled together, imprisoned, and a man who tries to hold them is about to fall at their feet.
A Rapa das Bestas is a festival that is celebrated annually in several localities in Galicia, in which horses are collected and locked in an enclosure to cut their manes and tails, heal their wounds and disinfect them of parasites. Once the rapa is done, they are returned to the mountain. One of the most well-known rapes takes place in the parish of Sabucedo, in the Pontevedra municipality of A Estrada. The photograph that illustrates this page was taken in Sabucedo, where the shearers offer the manes to the patron saint of the town, Saint Lawrence. Once again a good parallel with the present: the locks of Pedro Sánchez, indomitable socialist leader since 2015, may have started to be cut in Galicia. Perhaps the Galician elections of February 2024 will one day be known as A Rapa do Sánchez.
In Galicia, things have gone badly for the president of the central government, and when he was preparing to archive the lousy electoral result with a quick visit to Rabat to greet King Mohamed VI, the Koldo case broke out, the first episode of corruption that affects his circle of trust, the first circle of trust of the man who regained the leadership of the PSOE by twisting the will of the nomenclature of his party and a large part of the Spanish establishment.
Sánchez’s loyalists were few in 2017. There was José Luis Ábalos, deputy for Valencia; Francisco Toscano, legendary mayor of Dos Hermanas; Francisco Salazar, first deputy mayor of Dos Hermanas; José Antonio Rodríguez Salas, mayor of Jun (Granada) and expert in social networks; Adriana Lastra, deputy for Asturias; Santos Cerdán, secretary of organization of the PSOE in Navarre, and the faithful Koldo García, socialist councilor of a town in Navarre, who had been an escort in the Basque Country during the worst years of ETA, a worker in a security company, sentenced to two years for a fight in which a man was beaten, pardoned by the government of José María Aznar and years later decorated with the White Cross of the Civil Guard at the initiative of the Minister of the Interior Juan Ignacio Zoido (PP) for his services in the Basque Country.
Koldo García Izaguirre, man for everything. Koldo was the custodian of the endorsements of Sánchez’s candidacy in the socialist primaries of 2017. When the PSOE won the motion of no confidence in May 2018 against Mariano Rajoy, Barakaldo’s bodyguard became the trusted man of Minister of Development (later Transport and Mobility), José Luis Ábalos, then secretary of organization of the PSOE. Transport, public works, territorial investments and the organization of the party. Ábalos was one of the pillars of the new situation and the giant Koldo became his shadow. From that shadow he began to weave a network to make money from the epidemic, according to the ongoing investigation at the National Court. With the profits obtained, he bought two seafront apartments in Benidorm and a rustic lot in Polop, a municipality in the province of Alicante with real estate growth expectations. The Escopeta Nacional is changing hands, but it is still active. It always comes back.
Ábalos is not accused of anything, but Koldo García was his shadow, his wife was also employed in the Ministry of Transport, as well as a brother. Both are also accused of being part of the kickback ring. It is not a peripheral case, like that of the Canarian Tito Berni. Ábalos is a key man in the president’s political career. In September 2016, after being forced to resign as leader of the PSOE, Sánchez thought about leaving politics. Two people convinced him not to throw in the towel: the mayor Quico Toscano and Ábalos, a tough Valencian girdle, former PCE militant.
It is the second critical moment for the Valencian. In the ministerial reshuffle of July 2021, he was going to become Minister of Defense and some mechanism stopped the appointment. He was left out of the Government and the organizing secretariat. It was never known why. Ábalos kept quiet and was reinstated as deputy in the last general elections. It’s tough, it’s indestructible. He wants to agree on the exit and the president showed him the door yesterday. Will it be enough to resign as a deputy? How his situation is resolved depends on Sánchez not losing his mane with the Koldo case.
Politics is contingency. The poor result in Galicia highlights the territorial weakness of the PSOE. There is an oil stain on the cover of the Resistance Manual. Ábalos before his second fall. The Amnesty law to be approved. The 2024 budgets to approve. Yolanda Díaz making capital mistakes in Galicia. The left pillar of the coalition becoming dead weight. The Basque elections in April may once again show a fragile PSOE. The European elections in June will surely veer to the right, driven by the winds of rearmament coming from Eastern Europe and uncertainty in the United States. And Alberto Núñez Feijóo sending less and less encrypted signals to Junts: we can’t give you amnesty, but we could find other solutions.
The harsh voice of the opening scene of a rural Galician drama entitled As bestas is resonating in Spanish politics these days. Everything is being fleshed out.
