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The PP will call to declare the Minister of Finance and head of the PSOE list for Seville, María Jesús Montero, and the former president of the Junta José Antonio Griñán, convicted in the case of the ERE, in the new round of appearances in the investigation commission of the Andalusian Foundation for Training and Employment (Faffe). It is a public entity of the Junta de Andalucía created by the previous socialist managers and is being investigated in court for plugging and fraudulent use of public money.
This is the third time that this commission has been convened. In the period 2015-2018 it was constituted, but declined when elections were held. In the 2019-2022 legislature, the conclusions were approved in parliamentary committee, but not in plenary, again due to the electoral advance, with which there was no definitive closure. And now it resurfaces because Vox registered it, and the PP, which has an absolute majority, joined.
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At first, the popular did not want to open the turn of appearances, but changed their minds. The parliamentary spokesman of the PP, Toni Martín, has assured today that his group will register about 20 appearances, when the commission starts again next week. Although there is no timetable yet, it is certain that it will coincide with the pre-campaign and campaign of the general elections on July 23. It already happened in November 2019, when Parliament summoned former President Manuel Chaves on the eve of that election campaign.
Martin has assured that they will summon the people who either did not attend the commission for different circumstances or who came, but refused to testify. María Jesús Montero did not attend because she is protected by a legal report that ensures that the appearance of senior State officials in regional parliaments is not mandatory. These are subject to the control of Congress, but not of the regional assemblies. This criterion is the one that both the central governments of the PSOE and the PP have followed.
The popular said that among those cited will be former President Griñán, sentenced to six years in prison for a crime of embezzlement in the case of the ERE. The Court of Seville is awaiting a report from the coroner to decree his entry or not in prison for the cancer he suffers. He will also call the former Minister of Employment Antonio Fernández, who is serving a seven-year sentence in the Puerto 3 prison in Cadiz.
The popular intend to quote again the former director of the Faffe Fernando Villén, who is in full trial for spending 32,556 euros in brothels with their official cards. The prosecutor asks for six years in prison for the director. At the hearing, Villén did not reveal the identity of the people who accompanied him to the Don Angelo club in which he spent 14,700 euros in 15 payments. According to Martin, a new summons may "refresh his memory about who accompanied him on those crazy nights." In his opinion, this data is relevant because "there could be high positions with political responsibility would be absolutely scandalous."
The oral hearing that prosecutes Villén and the person in charge of the Faffe box, Ana Valls, concluded this Thursday and on Monday the popular jury will begin to deliberate on the ruling. In its final conclusions, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office insisted that the former director of the Faffe did not return the more than 32,500 euros spent in brothels, as his defense alleges, and that Valls helped to "camouflage" that expense to balance the boxes. "Like Juan Palomo, I stew it and I eat it. But then there is no invoice for any trip, neither from Valls nor from anyone," said the prosecutor, who has maintained the request for sentences of six and four years in prison, respectively, for embezzlement and falsification of documents. The defenses, for their part, asked for free acquittal because they understand that the police report on which the facts are based is "absolutely speculative."