Marta Belver Madrid

Madrid

Updated Monday, February 26, 2024-20:37

  • 'Koldo Case' Ábalos challenges the PSOE: he resigns as president of the Interior Commission, but maintains his record as deputy

The process of

José Luis Ábalos

leaving the PSOE is being a heavy digestion for the party.

The national leadership has taken five days to publicly demand that he deliver the deputy's minutes within 24 hours for his "political responsibility" in the alleged scheme to collect million-dollar commissions for the awarding of contracts for the purchase of masks during the pandemic. of Covid.

And the former minister has responded to the ultimatum by resigning from the presidency of the Interior Commission in Congress, but not from his seat.

The politician who between 2018 and 2021 held the Development portfolio, later renamed Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, is not just any activist.

In addition to being one of the fundamental supports of

Pedro Sánchez

in his reconquest of the general secretary of Ferraz after his defenestration, for four years he was also the secretary of Organization of the socialists, a position of vital importance in the organizational chart from which the organization is managed. internal

plumbing

.

"We are sure that José Luis will do the best for the PSOE," they continue to trust in the leadership of the party, where they remember that the deadline for the delivery of the parliamentary certificate, which is personal, "expires tomorrow."

However, privately, sources from the Federal Executive do not rule out the scenario that he finally refuses to do so and they have to end up expelling him from his bench in the chamber, which would end up joining the Mixed Group as an independent along with the representatives of Podemos, Canarian Coalition, BNG and UPN.

The only certain thing for now is that Ábalos will not serve as president of the Congressional Interior Commission in this Wednesday's session - in which "corruption" and "impunity" will be debated -, a responsibility for which Until now he earned an additional

gross 1,598.13 euros

per month.

If he maintains his challenge to the leadership and keeps the seat he won in the 23-J general elections by running as

number two

on the list for the Valencia constituency, for the duration of the legislature he will continue to receive a payroll of

5,160.55 euros

: 3,142.14 euros gross as an identical salary for all deputies and another 2,018.41 euros net for being elected by a province other than Madrid.

Three days after the outbreak last Wednesday of the case that affects

Koldo García Izaguirre

, who was his

right-hand man

in the Ministry of Transport, the former Secretary of Organization of the Socialists showed for the first time willing to "think" about the resignation of jointly with his party - in an interview published on Saturday in

El País

- "if the sacrifice serves to clarify everything and clarify responsibilities", but he demanded that they tell him "clear things" instead of with hints.

This Monday the formal request was finally conveyed to him "through the ordinary channel", but even so he has chosen to cast himself in the seat.

The leadership of the PSOE recognizes that Ábalos "is not investigated, nor accused, nor charged, nor does his name appear in the investigation" of the Koldo case, the name that has been popularly given to Operation

Delorme

.

"We do not set ourselves up as judges, we are not prosecutors, but despite everything there is a political responsibility," argued the party spokesperson,

Esther Peña

, after the meeting this Monday of the Federal Executive in which it was decided to " unanimity" to urge him to renounce the minutes.

Petition

Although at first Ferraz justified that they could not ask him to leave because a former member of his team was being investigated, on Friday they began to show him the exit door after learning the first information that would directly implicate the still Valencian deputy in the plot allegedly led by whoever was his personal advisor in the Ministry of Transportation.

Both in his public statements and in private he has defended that his accusation is political and media and that there is nothing against him.

Sánchez himself also joined on Saturday the implicit public pressure for Ábalos to resign from his record by defending that his arrival at La Moncloa through a motion of censure in 2018 that was successful after the condemnation of the PP" for the Gürtel

case

. "I want to reaffirm that the fight against corruption must be relentless, no matter where it comes from and whoever falls (...).

"He who does it pays," he stated this Saturday during his speech at an event of the Socialist International.

Throughout these days "several people" have spoken with the former

number three

of the party, as indicated by the Federal Executive, whose meeting this Monday has not been attended by the president of the Government and general secretary of the party because he has coincided with the inauguration of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Given the fruitlessness of the strategy for him to voluntarily renounce the minutes, the step has finally been taken to claim it and with a temporary deadline to prevent him from sitting on the socialist bench again on Tuesday, although they will not be able to prevent him from joining the Group. Mixed if you finally decide.