Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valencia

Updated Friday, March 1, 2024-11:15

  • 'Koldo Case' The judicial future of Ábalos, threatened by the seizures of the Civil Guard in the records

  • Summary The Civil Guard hunted down Ábalos as an "intermediary" in the plot just a month ago

The Minister of Science and leader of the Valencian socialists, Diana Morant, was the head of the PSOE list for

Valencia

in the 23-J lists.

She was then accompanied as number two by former minister José Luis Ábalos, whom she paradoxically replaced as the Valencian quota in the

Council of Ministers

in July 2021 and against whom she now protects herself with a firewall.

The fall from grace for the one who had also been Secretary of Organization of the party began then and, although his sudden departure from the Government and the leadership of the PSOE was later compensated with the electoral lists, it has now been completed in the midst of the outbreak of the

Koldo case

.

Not only does Morant now say that he barely knows Ábalos, but he defends the PSOE's actions when it comes to asking him to resign: "Whoever falls falls and even if it hurts," he said this Friday at a meeting in Valencia organized by Cadena SER about the request for political responsibilities.

"Neither I nor anyone in the PSOE considers him corrupt because we have not become judges," said Morant about Ábalos, identified as the "intermediary" of the alleged criminal plot led by his advisor, Koldo García.

Now, the minister has come to recognize that if Pedro Sánchez became president of the Government thanks to a motion of censure against the PP when the party was pointed out by

Gürtel

, the PSOE must now "be implacable with corruption."

"The PSOE feels comfortable with that exemplarity and that bar, which is very high," said Morant in response to Ábalos' attacks because he is not formally charged or investigated.

"There is no way back in the fight against corruption."

What's more, "it is perfectly justified to ask for Ábalos' resignation," stressed Morant, who, however, wanted to distance himself from the former minister in a striking way.

Asked what her relationship was with him,

Ximo Puig

's successor as general secretary of the

PSPV-PSOE

has limited herself to answering that she does not have a "specially close relationship" with Ábalos.

"I will have had five or six conversations with him in 13 years," she said.

The truth is that she reached the

General Secretariat

of the PSPV-PSOE supported by

Ferraz

and thanks to an agreement that also included Ábalos' allies in the

Valencian Community

.

According to Morant, among those few conversations that have occurred with him since she entered politics in 2011, none have taken place in recent days.

To such an extent she has wanted to distance herself from Ábalos that she has admitted that she did not share any campaign event with him and that her inclusion on the electoral lists was not decided by her: "I was not part of the configuration of the list."

Ábalos always said that if she was on the list it was by Sánchez's decision.

"We are not going to cover up the case but rather we will be active in finding out what happened," Morant said.

The minister has also taken the opportunity to attack the Valencian Government of Carlos Mazón, whom she has accused of "doing nothing."

"His project is hollow," she lamented.

"I see him very installed in the opposition. Instead of managing, he becomes an opposition to the Government of Spain," she said.

Furthermore, he has left the door open to negotiate with the

Ens Uneix party to recover the

Valencia Provincial Council

for the PSOE

, today in the hands of the PP thanks to the refusal of the former socialist

Jorge Rodríguez

to agree with the party that expelled him when the riot broke out.

Alquería case

.