The ex-minister and ex-organization secretary of the PSOE refuses to leave the minutes despite pressure from his party and defends his honesty in the Koldo case
José Luis Ábalos does not move from the Congress of Deputies. After being suspended from militancy and moving to the mixed group for his involvement in the Koldo case, the ex-minister and ex-number two of the PSOE yesterday made his first intervention in the plenary session of the Spanish chamber as an independent deputy. In it, he made it clear that he will continue to support the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, in the votes that affect the coalition government.
Ábalos reiterated his loyalty to Sánchez today in an interview with El Món on RAC1, where he assured that he has no intention of resigning from the deputy’s record, as the PSOE had demanded. The former minister stated that he feels innocent in the Koldo case and that his collaborator, accused of collecting illegal commissions for the purchase of masks during the pandemic, only received income “from the employers” and not from the public administration.
“I don’t want to end my career as a corrupt person,” said Ábalos, who acknowledged that he has received “messages from many politicians” who experienced “similar situations” and that he is “worried.” The former minister criticized that people “do not know how to differentiate between responsibilities” and insisted that he has not benefited in any way from the Koldo case. In this sense, he already warned that “he would not give up” in his appearance in Congress.
Ábalos leaves the presidency of the Interior commission and the PP takes advantage of his case to attack Sánchez
Although Ábalos has decided to keep his deputy record, he has resigned from the presidency of the Interior committee, which he held since he left the government. This decision has been interpreted as a gesture of demarcation from the PSOE, which had given him an ultimatum to leave his seat. Ábalos, who had been one of Pedro Sánchez’s strong men, is now in a situation of political marginality.
The Koldo case has served the PP to erode the image of Sánchez and his executive. This morning, the spokesman for the popular party in Congress, Miguel Tellado, assured that the Koldo case “exceeds” the figure of Ábalos. “It’s the Sánchez case,” said Tellado to implicate the Spanish president in the alleged corruption plot. The PP has also requested the appearance of Sánchez in Congress to give explanations about the Koldo case.
Ábalos points to his successor as responsible for his relationship with Koldo García
In his round of interviews this Wednesday morning, Ábalos also spoke about his successor as secretary of organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán. Ábalos has revealed that it was Cerdán who recommended Koldo García to him as a collaborator. “He was a very willing Navarre militant and hence my disappointment in trust”, explained Ábalos in an interview with El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, where he described it as a “mistake” that his party had asked him for the act of deputy
Other news that may interest you
