The nightmare for Pedro Sánchez continues due to the alleged corruption plot within his party, the PSOE, around the purchase of face masks as soon as the pandemic broke out.
Added to the responsibility attributed to his former Minister of Transportation - whose favorite advisor would have received illegal commissions for the purchase of medical supplies -
were the suspicions surrounding meetings that his wife, Begoña Gómez
, would have had with businessmen linked to the alleged corruption network.
According to the online newspaper
El Confidencial
, Begoña Gómez, who usually maintains a strict low profile, would have met with Víctor de Aldama and Javier Hidalgo, who would have presented her with business projects:
from an application to sell medicines at home
- which the Agency Española del Medicamento never authorized real estate initiatives to revitalize depopulated areas of Spain.
De Aldama is the president of the Zamora Football Club.
He is credited with textile ventures in Africa and South America and it seems that
he circulated through the Ministry of Transportation with a preferential pass.
He would be the link between the public administration and the company that was awarded the purchase of masks, due to his good relationship with Koldo García, the advisor of former Minister Abalos and the first piece in the puzzle of illegal collection.
The president of the government Pedro Sánchez and his wife Begoña Gómez, in 2019. Photo EFE
García is the most visible face, until now, of excessive enrichment that is impossible to justify:
in a couple of years his assets increased by 1.5 million euros.
Javier Hidalgo, for his part, is the son of Juan José Hidalgo, founder of the Globalia corporation, to which the airline Air Europa belonged before it was acquired, in 2021 and with a government budget, by Iberia.
Javier was CEO of Air Europa and a restless entrepreneur: he dealt with investment funds, representation of models and
even ventured into the shipping industry.
The wife of President Sánchez, whose resume is the target of criticism from opponents of the government, directs a chair created by the Complutense University of Madrid to train experts in the labor market.
The contacts between the businessman and Begoña Gómez would have occurred more or less in parallel while the Ministry of Transport - which at that time was headed by José Luis Abalos, a man very close to Pedro Sánchez - was making emergency contracts to buy face masks as soon as possible.
The National Court investigates these contracts with a focus on the illegal commissions that would have been paid in the awards.
And former Minister Abalos, based on what has been investigated so far,
appears as an “intermediary.”
The PP could summon Sánchez's wife
“Even the closest political environment of the Socialist Party has been surpassed to talk about meetings between his own wife and the commission agent and with businessmen, supposedly.
This needs and deserves an immediate explanation,” said the general secretary of the Popular Party (PP), Cuca Gamarra, this Thursday.
He did not rule out that Begoña Gómez was summoned to testify in the Senate
.
Although she stressed that it is her husband, Pedro Sánchez, who should talk about her.
“At the pace at which the headlines are going, the president can last a short time without giving explanations,” Gamarra ironically said.
“You should not appear because anyone demands it, but at your own will.
“You can’t hide for long,” he added.
One less deputy
Within the PSOE, the scandal over illegal commissions pitted the party leadership against former minister Abalos who, until this Wednesday,
was one of the 121 socialist deputies in Congress.
The pressure from the PSOE for Abalos to resign from his seat led to the former minister leaving the party.
And since he refused to leave his seat - the deputy record is personal and does not belong to the PSOE - he became a member, alone, of the parliamentary group of the minority parties, known as the mixed group.
On Wednesday, during the government control session, most of the questions to the president pointed to the “Boldo case.”
The leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, shot him: “You knew it, at least, for three years,” he told Sánchez.
“You knew it and you covered it up.”
With his response, Pedro Sánchez kicked the ball out of the court:
“He who thinks he can take political advantage of corruption causes shame.”
P.B.