Absolute silence.
“There is an open procedure in the party's Rights and Guarantees department and that process must be respected,” explain sources from the Madrid PP.
That is the internal slogan that has been installed among the popular people of Madrid after accusations of irregularities and espionage against the councilor of the capital of Spain and secretary of the party in the 21 districts, Alberto González.
Three deputy secretaries of the party in Madrid, including a leader of New Generations (NNGG) of the Community, denounced González in writing at the party's national headquarters last year, as EL PAÍS reported this Wednesday.
The PP officials, who resigned in 2023 but continue to be members, denounce pressures, coercion and orders to spy on other members around the current president of Nuevas Generaciones, Beatriz Fanjul, in addition to alleged economic irregularities at the PP headquarters in Latina , which González currently presides over.
The complaints reached Genoa in June 2023. However, four months before going to the national headquarters of the party, the complainants wrote several letters and WhatsApp messages to the general secretary of the popular parties in the region, Alfonso Serrano, but they did not obtain no response.
Silence, they say, settled from the first moment at the PP headquarters in Madrid.
In fact, this circumstance did not affect the preparation of the electoral lists, where Councilor González was in position number 24.
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Three deputy secretaries of the PP of Madrid accuse a councilor of the capital of promoting irregularities and espionage to other positions
Councilor Alberto González currently holds several important positions in the organization chart of the Madrid City Council and the PP.
He is secretary of the party in all districts, president of the PP in the Latina district and, between 2021 and 2023, he was general director of Self-Employed and Entrepreneurship of the Community of Madrid with Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
González is also a man of Serrano's utmost confidence, President Ayuso's right-hand man in the Madrid PP.
When consulted by this newspaper, Councilor González prefers to remain silent and refers any matter to the regional party.
The first complaint, in February 2023
“I think it is my obligation to inform you,” the first complainant writes to Serrano's mobile phone in February 2023, “that in the last Executive Committee I have resigned from all my organic positions.
[...] I have seen strange things that I did not like.
[...] I wanted you to be informed of it.”
Later, another of the complainants also decides to send an email to Serrano telling about the espionage assignments to Beatriz Fanjul's entourage and other party advisors in the City Council, in addition to other financial irregularities at the headquarters of the PP of Latina, but he also does not obtain a response from Serrano.
“Alberto González,” the letter reads, “asks me to spy on the national president of Nuevas Generaciones, Beatriz Fanjul, and her entourage.
"Let him mark with a cross those members of Madrid who are related to the national leadership and collect information about other people, including Ricardo Calle, advisor to the City Council in the last legislature, and Alejandro Cortés, among others."
“For obvious reasons,” explains the author of the complaint, “I can't do it and I start giving Alberto [González] the runaround.”
“In those moments I warn certain people with whom I have a friendship to be careful, because they have ordered me to spy on them,” he writes.
Consulted this Wednesday by this newspaper, Fanjul also prefers to remain silent on the matter.
José Luis Martínez-Almeida and councilor Alberto González, last Thursday at Madrid City Hall. Popular Party
On May 22, and already in the middle of the municipal and regional election campaign, a third deputy secretary of the PP of Latina decides to send another letter to the general secretary of the PP of Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, with more details.
“We are aware of the relationship with different businessmen in the district to whom proposals are made due to the status of general director of Self-Employed and Entrepreneurship that could allegedly be criminal.
[...] Since [González] took office, practically all of the executive committees, steering committees, and campaign committees have not been convened in a timely manner....”
And he also receives silence from Serrano.
Monago's intervention
A month later, and already in June 2023, the complainants write to the National Committee of Rights and Guarantees, disappointed because senior party officials have not shown interest in their accusations.
The president of the National Committee of Rights and Guarantees is the former president of Extremadura José Antonio Monago, who, when consulted by this newspaper, also prefers to remain silent about the case.
Monago, upon receiving the complaints, immediately opened an information file and referred the matter to the Rights and Guarantees Committee of the PP in Madrid.
And that is when, for the first time, the popular people of Madrid decide to take an interest in the alleged irregularities and requests for espionage.
The first decision made by the PP of Madrid in this regard occurred on September 12, 2023. According to the writing to which this newspaper has had access, the instructor that the popular Madrid residents have appointed for the case is Antonio Ángel Avilés García.
Avilés García, according to a news item from
eldiario.es
As of 2018, he invoiced 860,000 euros with his law firm while earning a public salary of 2,574 euros per month as Economy Councilor for Tres Cantos.
“I don't have any sense that he is doing anything immoral or amoral,” he declared at the time.
“I fulfill all my duties here with quite acceptable results.
I believe that politics should not be lived off of.”
Avilés García took a statement from one of the complainants on September 27, 2023. According to what the latter told EL PAÍS, the popular instructor told him that these actions should not have been notified to the National Committee of Rights and Guarantees, that it was better to speak things before.
Four months later, on January 9, the complainants were called again by the instructor.
The file remains open, according to popular sources.
The reactions of Almeida and the Ayuso Government
“This is a party issue that has to be substantiated in the regional Rights and Guarantees Committee,” said the mayor of Madrid this Wednesday during a visit to the capital's cable car.
“And, therefore, I am not going to speak out there because it will be the committee that will have to instruct and make the appropriate decision.
In any case, what I can say is that Alberto González is doing a great job as a Latina councilor.
From the point of view of political decisions and the responsibility that he has as a councilor, he is doing very well.
As a councilor he has all my confidence.”
In the Community of Madrid, however, silence prevails.
Miguel Ángel García, advisor to the Presidency of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, preferred not to make statements after the Wednesday Government Meeting in the main building of Puerta del Sol. “It is not up to the regional government to make any assessment in this regard.”
More Madrid and PSOE, however, criticize the councilor's attitude.
“Almeida must respond today if he maintains confidence in someone who makes mafia practices his way of doing politics,” said opposition leader Rita Maestre.
“It is not the first time that we know of cases of internal espionage in the PP of Madrid,” observed the socialist Reyes Maroto.
“It's a game where nobody trusts anyone.
Wrapped in alleged rigging.
A party that lacks transparency and where everyone goes after everyone instead of focusing and taking care of the people of Madrid.
The residents of La Latina deserve that their councilor is concerned and takes care of the serious problems that the district is going through, and these events represent a discredit of the representatives of the municipal government."
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