The Diputación de Ourense, chaired by the popular José Manuel Baltar Blanco, contracted last February by finger for 17,010 euros the promotion of an issue of a trend magazine, Coralia, which dedicates an extensive report to the company of his wife, the former deputy of the PP in the Galician Parliament María Josefa Caldelas.
In the contract proposal, the Provincial Council considers it "timely" to acquire 486 copies of that number of the publication for its funds and for "presidency protocol uses".
The agency justifies the expense by pointing out that it offers "extensive information on the
entroid
[carnival], gastronomy, thermal baths, literature, the different tourist routes and information about towns in the province”.
However, the only company with its own report in that edition is that of the wife of the president of the Provincial Council, dedicated to the sale of ice cream.
The provincial institution has refused to give its version.
Weeks before the contract, the official presentation of the number was held at the Diputación de Ourense.
Caldelas was the only businesswoman at the event who posed surrounded by the politicians who attended, all from the PP, and the director of the publication.
The official photos of that act were taken by the Diputación's photographer while another employee of the organization, hired by hand by Baltar as temporary staff of the presidency in the position of communication coordinator, signed other images for the magazine.
This was not the first contact of the Diputación de Ourense with the magazine.
In May 2021,
Coralia
had already dedicated a few pages to Ourense in another issue on tourism in Galicia.
The magazine received the support of the Xacobeo Cultural Projects Fund 2021 promoted by the General Secretariat of Language Policy of the Xunta to "alleviate the effects of the health crisis caused by covid".
That number also deserved an official act of presentation in Ourense, this time in a restaurant, chaired by Baltar and by the delegate of the Xunta in the province, Gabriel Alén.
Along with them, also numerous positions of the provincial PP.
And among all, only two businessmen: the manager of Caldaria (the hotel and spa business line created by the San Rosendo Foundation, a private social assistance entity) and the wife of the president of the Provincial Council, who had inserted advertising for her company of ice cream in that number.
Later came a cultural management award from the institution to the founder and art director of the magazine who had just died, the report of the Caldelas company and the acquisition of copies with public funds.
The provincial body continues to promote the family business of its president and provincial leader of the PP.
This week it has been decided that Ourense will participate for the first time in the Salón Gourmets 2022, which will be held at the Ifema fairgrounds in Madrid, from April 25 to 28.
The event will be attended by 12 micro-enterprises from Ourense sponsored by the Diputación: wineries with appellations of origin from the province, dairies, potatoes from A Limia and Galician beef.
"The sweet section of the stand will be in charge of the company La Central Heladera, promoting artisanal ice creams of different flavors," says the press release issued by the institution about the signature of Baltar's wife, which highlights that it is ice creams "made with organic milk and top quality products”.
previous backups
It is not the first time that the institutions governed by the PP promote the businesses of Baltar's wife.
In 2020, the Ourense City Council, where the popular co-govern with the independent Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, sponsored the Caldelas ice cream parlor at Fitur.
Before creating that company, Baltar's wife owned a pub located in the historic center of Ourense.
She ended up being sentenced to a year in prison for having forged the signatures of the former owners to obtain municipal licenses.
Later, she took over the management of a downtown cafeteria, owned by the municipality for which the City Council, governed by the PP, charged her 60 euro cents a year when similar rents then exceeded 25,000.
Years before, in 2008, Caldelas had already tried her luck in the business world, also promoted by her husband.
On that occasion, her company Melior Producciones, SL was contracted by her husband to organize the electoral acts of Feijóo in the province of Ourense.
Baltar was then president of the electoral organization committee of the Ourense PP that was led by his father, the self-styled "good chief", convicted of plugging and who, upon retiring from him, bequeathed all of his charges to his son. .
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