Sánchez dissociates himself from the mask plot and denies that he had information when he dismissed Ábalos as minister

Marta BelverSpecial envoy Rabat

Special Envoy Rabat

Updated Wednesday, February 21, 2024-18:37

• Politics Sánchez assumes that he will be in La Moncloa until 2027: "I have all the time in the world"

• Interior The UCO detains Ábalos' trusted man, Koldo García Izaguirre, for belonging to a plot that collected illegal commissions in the pandemic

Pedro Sánchez has marked distances this Wednesday with the arrest of Koldo García Izaguirre, right-hand man of former minister José Luis Ábalos, accused of being part of a plot that allegedly charged illegal commissions for awarding contracts for health products during the Covid crisis. The President of the Government has also disassociated the decision to dismiss whoever was his strong man because he had information about this fact.

In a press conference during an express visit to Morocco, the Spanish president defended that, since he arrived at

La Moncloa

in 2018, his Executive has collaborated with Justice "always." "Of course, beyond the judicial process, any attempt at enrichment through the collection of commissions in a tragedy such as the pandemic, as we have unfortunately seen in other autonomies, has my disapproval and reproach," he stressed.

In this sense, Sánchez has indicated that his "attention" was drawn to the opposition's "slander" when Alberto Núñez Feijóo came to the leadership of the PP for a case "that has not been investigated or recriminated", in reference to the alleged collection of commissions from the brother of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for the purchase of masks. What he has not referred to is that the

Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office

filed this case in 2022 after not detecting any "favorable treatment."

García Izaguirre has been arrested as part of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in eight provinces and with arrests in

Madrid, Murcia and Alicante

. Those arrested are charged with the crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling and bribery for the awarding of contracts with various administrations.