Marta Belver Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-13:17

  • Investigation A puncture points to the involvement of Ábalos: "This was a favor that Koldo and his former boss were asking of him"

Two days after the alleged mask sales plot was uncovered in which Koldo García Izaguirre, advisor to former minister

José Luis Ábalos

, would be involved, senior government officials within the PSOE quota have begun to publicly pressure the Valencian politician to resign his seat in Congress.

The situation has changed after it emerged this Friday that a telephone tap in the

Delorme operation

points to the participation of the company that benefited from the contracts of the Ministry of Transport when he was in charge through a conversation in which the key businessman of the plot talks about "a favor that Koldo and his former boss were asking."

"I cannot say what Mr. Ábalos wants to do or is going to stop doing, I know what I would do," the first vice president of the Executive and

number two

of the party,

María Jesús Montero

, said this Friday , implicitly implying that In her place she would deliver the deputy certificate.

Likewise, she has pointed out that "the investigations are ongoing" and that, after the lifting of the secrecy of the summary, there will be "an opportunity to know the scope" of them, Europa Press reports.

Along the same lines, when the Minister of Defense was asked in an interview on RNE if she believes that the former head of Transportation should leave Congress after the arrest and subsequent release on charges of his former right-hand woman Margarita

Robles

He has limited himself to pointing out: "It's not for me to say, everyone has to know what they have to do at all times."

Sources from the socialist leadership had indicated this Thursday that they had no intention of asking Ábalos to hand over his deputy record with the argument that he does not have to step aside due to the fact that a person who was part of his team is being investigated in an alleged case of corruption.

After his possible direct involvement in the Koldo case is now known, the strategy involves exerting public pressure to do so voluntarily.

The former Transport Minister once again competed in the general elections of 23-J for the province of Valencia and, in addition to occupying a seat in the San Jerónimo race chamber, he is president of the Congressional Interior Commission.

Asked if he was considering leaving the seat due to the scandal affecting his former

right-hand man

, the party's former Secretary of Organization responded this Thursday with irony, pointing out that he will act "like the mayor of Madrid", in reference to the alleged scam. to the City Council of the capital in the sale of masks also during the pandemic for which

José Luis Martínez-Almeida

did not resign.