The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, Carmen Crespo, this Tuesday at the San Telmo Palace after the Governing Council PACO PUENTES (EL PAIS)
The Andalusian opposition has requested explanations from the Chairman of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno, for the alleged involvement of the Minister of Agriculture, Carmen Crespo, in an alleged illegal financing scheme linked to the payment of commissions by the construction company Hispano Almería, SA to different Almeria city councils governed by the popular and investigated since 2014. Crespo, along with 19 other people, has been called to testify as investigated by judge Ana Belén Vico, who investigates the supposed box b of the Popular Party in Almería. While the Andalusian PSOE has limited itself to demanding explanations from Moreno, the rest of the parties have also requested the dismissal of the counselor.
Crespo, as mayor of Adra (Almería), chaired the Association of Tourism Promoters of Poniente from 2009 to 2011 and signed as president an agreement with the Ministry of Tourism, then led by the socialist Luciano Alonso, on action plans in different municipalities, which included the construction of a Museum of Agriculture in La Mojonera. The City Council of this town awarded it to a joint venture in which Hispano Almería was located.
The auditor warned in 2012 of unjustified payments. The judge investigates Crespo, the former mayor of La Mojonera, José Cara, and the rest of those investigated for alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering, embezzlement, prevarication, bribery, influence peddling, prohibited negotiations with authorities or officials and organization and criminal group. Cara was appointed by Crespo to a high position in the Ministry of Agriculture in 2019. In January 2021 he was dismissed.
The Minister of Agriculture has appeared this Tuesday in Seville after the last meeting of the year of the Governing Council and has affirmed to be "absolutely calm" about her accusation that she claims to have learned through the media.
She has also assured that the president of the Board and the Andalusian PP, Juan Manuel Moreno, and the Andalusian vice president and coordinator of Cs, Juan Marín "are as calm" as she.
Although Crespo has been summoned to testify on April 8, being a deputy for the Andalusian Parliament is qualified by which only the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia is competent in her case.
"I do not know the facts, we will study them and appeal.
The presidency of the Poniente Tourism Promoters Association was institutional and rotating.
It does not award works, but they are awarded by city councils.
And when it was awarded I was not president of that association.
The facts are very clear, ”said Crespo.
The coordinator of Ciudadanos Andalucía and vice president of the Board, Juan Marín, has left in the hands of his deputy spokesperson in Congress, Edmundo Bal, the position of this party on Crespo's imputation.
"We need to delve into the explanations", has limited himself to saying Bal.
"Once the facts underlying this investigation are clarified, Ciudadanos will enforce the government agreement and will take advantage of regeneration and cleaning," he stressed.
In the PP and Ciudadanos coalition agreement, both parties proclaim "zero tolerance for corruption." And they commit “to the immediate separation of public positions in all Andalusian institutions, both autonomous and local, that have been or are formally charged for crimes of corruption, until the final decision of the judicial body. Likewise, both parties undertake that people who find themselves in such a situation cannot be included in electoral candidacies or be appointed to hold public office ”.
Vox and United We can have asked the president of the Board, the dismissal of Crespo, while the PSOE has limited itself for now to ask Juan Manuel Moreno to "give explanations before his very delicate situation for the possible Andalusian Gürtel."
The secretary of the Socialist Organization, Noel López, has urged Moreno to "apply the same level of demand in transparency and exemplarity that is requested from other parties and demanded by citizens in cases of alleged corruption such as those investigated by the court in Almería."
The deputy spokesperson for the popular group in the Andalusian Parliament, José Ramón Carmona, has considered it a "joke in bad taste" that "the ERE party that took 680 million euros from the Andalusians dares to speak of corruption.
It is the party of corruption and that title will never be taken away from them ”.
The coordinator of Podemos, Martina Velarde, has demanded the "immediate dismissal" of the Minister of Agriculture. "This accusation does not catch anyone by surprise", affecting a party whose "misdeeds include the destruction of hard drives to hide evidence, illegal espionage and the systematic use of bonuses and b-boxes", he stressed. Toni Valero, coordinator of Izquierda Unida, has demanded the president of the Board to give explanations and Crespo, to leave his post.
The far-right party has taken advantage of the judge's decision to summon the person in charge of Agriculture as investigated to demand the convening of elections.
“The Government of Juanma Moreno looks more and more like the socialist governments that devastated Andalusia.
His Minister of Agriculture is charged by box B of the PP of Almería.
Andalusians deserve a government without corruption and only VOX can guarantee it.
Elections now! ”, Says Vox on his Twitter account.
Also the non-attached deputy and spokesperson for Adelante Andalucía, Teresa Rodríguez, has demanded the “immediate resignation” of Crespo.