Marta Belver Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, March 1, 2024-02:07

  • Politics The PSOE justifies Ábalos because "going to a meal is not a crime" and Tellado denies contacts with the plot

  • 'Koldo Case' The PSOE loses its "fear" of Ábalos, but fears internal upheaval: "It is the most delicate moment since the primaries"

In the PSOE they have not resorted to José Luis Ábalos, for the moment, to the classic "that man you are talking about" that

Mariano Rajoy

coined to refer to

Luis Bárcenas

after his involvement in the illegal financing of the PP that was judged in the

Gürtel case

and for which the former treasurer of the party who was convicted.

But the music sounds similar.

Ferraz's leadership considers his connection to the former Minister of Transport to be amortized after having provisionally suspended him from militancy for having joined the

Mixed Group

instead of renouncing his seat, as they had demanded.

In application of this strategy, several sources from the Federal Executive yesterday downplayed the importance of the information, revealed by

EL MUNDO

, that the Civil Guard places the Valencian deputy as an "intermediary" in the plot of the alleged collection of million-dollar commissions in the purchase of masks during the pandemic for which his former advisor, Koldo García, was arrested last week.

"Nothing changes, the [disciplinary] file is the same," they noted in reference to the process initiated on Tuesday for his expulsion as a member.

Although in the national leadership of the Socialists they specify that "there is still no criminal reproach" regarding whoever was Pedro Sánchez's strong man both in the party and in La Moncloa, they insist on marking distance with him, emphasizing that "he is no longer even in the party nor in the group” of Congress.

To which they add: «We are going to let the judges and the UCO [Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard] work, to see what comes out.

And, if nothing comes of it, better.

«The only thing I know from the information published [by

EL MUNDO

], which is what we all know, is that there is no type of crime or accusation against Mr. Ábalos, but, despite this, we have requested a additional plus, that he assumes political responsibilities for having trusted the wrong person," argued, in turn, the first vice president of the Government and

number two

in the Ferraz headquarters,

María Jesús Montero

.

"Ethical code"

As he stated, "the reality of the facts shows that in no case has the judge investigating this case questioned the legality of the contracts" made by the Executive during the Covid crisis.

To which he added: "What has existed is a parallel plot in which, I would say, in a repugnant way there were people who became rich as a result of the pandemic and, therefore, with the pain and suffering of the Spanish people." .

And that is what we from the PSOE are not going to tolerate, going even beyond our ethical code.

Ábalos, for his part, assured yesterday that the dinner he had on January 10 with Koldo García as an "intermediary" for the mask plot, according to UCO reports, was a chance meeting.

In an interview on the program

Everything is a Lie

, on Cuatro, the former minister maintained that, despite the fact that there are 14,900 restaurants in Madrid, he met his former advisor in a booth at the

La Chalana

seafood restaurant on the same day and at the same time without having agreed previously and that they did not talk "about anything important", when the Civil Guard framed it in the claim of 2.6 million by the Government of the Balearic Islands for the medical material that it could not use due to lack of quality.

The now deputy of the Mixed Group continues to defend his total disassociation from the so-called

Delorme operation

in the media tour that has begun after refusing to comply with the PSOE's instruction to leave the seat he obtained in Congress by participating in the general elections under its initials.

Although he has expressed his intention to appeal his suspension of militancy - for which he has five days from Tuesday -, until yesterday he had not done so, but he did remain in the chat of socialist deputies.