All parties in the Senate voted this Tuesday in favor of establishing the investigative commission requested by PP and UPN to investigate the so-called ‘Koldo case’, referring to the alleged payment of bribes in the purchase of medical supplies during the pandemic.
Specifically, 259 senators participated in the vote, all of whom voted in favor of this initiative, with no votes against or abstentions recorded.
Although the Popular Party has an absolute majority in the Upper House and did not need the support of other parties, the PSOE, Vox, Sumar and all the nationalist forces finally joined. However, both the socialists and their partners criticized that the popular ones did not want to investigate other possible irregularities in the purchase of medical supplies during the wave of covid-19.
Specifically, the socialist spokesperson, Juan Espadas, criticized that those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo did not want to do rigorous work and investigate what was necessary. In addition, Compromís or Más Madrid reproached the PP for not wanting to investigate other cases that may affect it, such as what referred to the former mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá or the complaint for alleged tax fraud against the partner of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
In his defense of the initiative, popular senator Luis Santamaría pointed out that the investigative commission that will be created in the Upper House on the ‘Koldo case’ will not be hindered by “smoke screens” or “hoaxes.” He thus alluded to the fact that another commission will also be created in Congress, although it will investigate the purchases of medical supplies during the pandemic by different institutions.
Santamaría maintained that the senators will investigate how the “Sanchista militia” functioned, in which he said that Koldo García was a “reference” for the President of the Government.
He added that this advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos understood that “the best way to fight the crisis was to make money at the expense of the public treasury and that robbing the Spanish people is a legitimate way to fight the right.”
Also on behalf of the PP, María José Pardo maintained that “the corruption of the ‘Koldo case’ is the corruption of the PSOE” and that it will be seen how these irregular practices are part of the “heart” of this party and the Government.
At the same time, Junts senator Joan Baptista Bagué announced his party’s support for the commission, since it is in favor of clarifying any “alleged corrupt actions” and they are not “aligned with any parliamentary bloc.”
For his part, Espadas, on behalf of the PSOE, indicated that his party would support the Popular Party’s initiative to demonstrate the “very different” response they gave to corruption compared to the PP.
The socialist representative also called on the popular party to clarify whether the Prosecutor’s Office’s complaint against Ayuso’s partner “is corruption or not corruption” and if Feijóo’s people “will destroy the Tax Agency’s computers” to prevent this from being clarified.
At the same time, Paloma Gómez, from Vox, stated that, by creating another commission in Congress, the PSOE intends to divert attention from the “greatest act of corruption,” which for this political force is the amnesty.
Likewise, Carla Delgado, from Más Madrid, reproached the PP for only wanting to investigate the ‘Koldo case’ and not Ayuso’s entourage. Along these lines, Enric Morera, from Compromís, pointed out that commissions allegedly collected by the brother-in-law of the former mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá are yet to be clarified.
