A scandal that the Spanish executive would have done well without. For several weeks, the socialist government has been mired in a case of alleged corruption surrounding a system of contract purchases of masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. And this Wednesday, March 6, a first head fell. This is Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, a senior official at the Ministry of Transport who until then headed the entity in charge of ports. “A layoff” only, puts into perspective the current Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, whose predecessor, José Luis Ábalos, has now become a member of the General Courts – the Spanish Parliament – is at the heart of the scandal.
It was in fact within his team that the villainous set-up would have been imagined. For several months, his former right-hand man and confidant Koldo Garcia Izaguirre has been accused of having played a key role in a large-scale fraud. And the suspicions surrounding this character who gave his name to the “Koldo affair”, also called “Combine Koldo” by conservative newspapers, continued to grow as the investigation progressed. To the point, on February 21, of being arrested by the Guarda Civil – the Spanish police – in the port city of Alicante in the south-east of Spain.
Bribes, contracts worth 50 million euros…
It must be said that the charges against him are heavy. According to our colleagues from the Spanish daily El País, Koldo Garcia Izaguirre allegedly received bribes on purchases of sanitary masks “via companies he controlled”. Among these companies, Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas SL, which describes itself as a development and technical consulting company for international infrastructure projects in the areas of health, energy, water and agriculture. Although the amount of these commissions has still not been officially revealed, it is estimated at nearly 10 million euros for contracts whose total sum reaches more than 50 million euros.
Traveling to Rabat during the arrest of the former advisor, the head of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez assured that he was not aware of the existence of bribes, nor of the supposed role of his former minister. of Health. And to assure that he would firmly condemn “any attempt to enrich oneself by collecting commissions on a tragedy such as the pandemic, as has happened in other authorities and autonomous regions”.
Pedro Sánchez weakened
But for his opponents, there is no doubt: the exclusion of José Luis Ábalos from the government in July 2021 demonstrates that the Prime Minister was well informed of the facts of corruption. On the right of the political spectrum, Pedro Sanchez is even accused of having passed over this affair in silence. “You knew about it and you covered it up,” lectures Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, leader of the Popular Party (PP). Allegations completely refuted by the head of government, who for his part denounces the incessant “slander” of the conservative party against him.
On February 21, Cuca Gamarra, the general secretary of the PP, urged former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, as well as former Health Minister Salvador Illa, and his replacement Mónica García, to provide explanations regarding the illegal commissions received by Koldo Garcia Izaguirre. Present today in the Chamber of Deputies as an elected official from Valencia, José Luis Ábalos assured that he was unaware of the involvement of his former collaborator with whom relations would have weakened “over time”. Even though the two men met in a seafood restaurant as recently as January 10.
Ábalos, soon to be excluded from the PSOE?
According to the former Minister of Transport, “everything took place in compliance with legal mechanisms […] the contracts were concluded with autonomous entities which were examined by the Court of Auditors.” “I would like to be able to provide [des explications], but I don’t have any more information than what I’ve read. And what I read is that, in addition, [l’affaire est] confidential” he argued, while saying he was “stunned”. “As far as I know, Koldo Garcia Izaguirre had a completely normal life”. Reason why “I find it hard to believe it […] It’s a shock.”
In the Spanish program “Todo es Mentera” (in French “Everything is a lie”, Editor’s note), on the Cuatro channel, the former Minister of Transport reaffirmed Thursday February 29 his support for his former colleague. “He always showed me loyalty and affection.” And to concede: “Were there any commissions? Yes absolutely, because it was a business.”
Called on both sides to resign since the arrest of Koldo Garcia Izaguirre, José Luis Ábalos categorically refuses to give up his seat as deputy. “I am not accused of anything” he insists, assuring that he “would not end (his) career as corrupt” even though he is “innocent”. But faced with the growing threat of destabilization of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), the leadership of the movement began, on Tuesday February 27, a procedure to exclude the former Minister of Transport, a member of the party since 1981. Perhaps rightly so. be, since the judge in charge of the investigation confirmed a few days later, that José Luis Ábalos had indeed played an “intermediary role” in the “Koldo affair”.