A
crossfire of complaints and accusations
between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the main opposition party, the PP, for
alleged acts of corruption
that would involve
relatives
of the main political leaders generates instability in Spain.
The last chapter
involves the partner of the president of the Community of Madrid
, Isabel Díaz Ayuso: Alberto González Amador, a 48-year-old health technician, was denounced by the Provincial Prosecutor's Office and is being investigated for tax fraud and falsifying documents.
The Spanish press highlights that the boyfriend of the regional president
would have pocketed around two million euros
in commissions for the purchase of masks during the pandemic.
This Wednesday, in addition, the PP denounced Sánchez for having been present at the cabinet meeting in which the decision was made to financially “save” Air Europa, the airline of the Globalia group that would have subsidized the professional activities of the president's wife. of the government, Begoña Gómez.
The accusations of the PP against the wife of Pedro Sánchez are part of the tails of the corruption plot that involves a former advisor to the former Minister of Transportation, José Luis Abalos, who would have enriched himself disproportionately by collecting commissions for bringing the government closer. intermediary companies for the purchase of masks from China in the worst of the pandemic.
Due to the complaints, which are being investigated, Abalos, who was currently a deputy and pleads innocent, was questioned by the leadership of his party, the PSOE, to leave his seat.
Something that did not happen: whoever was secretary of organization decided to distance himself from the PSOE and keep his seat alone and within the mixed group, made up of forces that have less than 15 deputies.
The ramifications of the so-called “Koldo case” – named after the former advisor accused of corruption, Koldo García Izaguirre – reached Pedro Sánchez's wife.
Begoña Gómez would have met with two businessmen linked to the plot who would have offered her business proposals.
This background plus the links of the president's wife with Air Europa, the company that was rescued from bankruptcy with millions of public money, are the dagger that the PP throws at the PSOE asking the resignation of several leaders, including the president of Congress, Francina. Armengol, who was regional president of the Balearic Islands when the illegal commissions were paid for the purchase of masks.
Crossfire
In the parliamentary session to control the government this Wednesday, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the PP, crossed paths with serious mutual accusations.
“We are facing a very serious case of corruption, Mr. President, that affects your government, your party and probably you,” said Núñez Feijóo.
Among his recriminations, the leader of the PP asked that the investigation be reopened for the confusing episode that occurred in Spain in January 2020, when the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, landed in Barajas despite having her entry prohibited into Europe.
The then Minister of Transportation Avalos met with her in a room at the Madrid airport.
He never gave any explanations about that meeting, whose investigation the judge closed.
In turn, Pedro Sánchez targeted the leader of the Madrid PP.
“I demand that you ask for the resignation of Mrs. Ayuso as president of the Community of Madrid,” Sánchez told Núñez Feijóo.
“Let him have courage, let him be brave, let him demand the resignation of Mrs. Ayuso from the Community of Madrid even if it costs him his position, like Mr. Casado,” Sánchez reminded him.
Pablo Casado was the president of the PP in 2022 when he denounced that the autonomous community of Madrid had awarded a contract, in the middle of the pandemic, to the company of a friend of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's brother.
In a statement, the Madrid president then admitted that her brother had charged 55 thousand euros (plus VAT) for obtaining masks in China, but the complaint against Díaz Ayuso earned Casado the position, who was replaced by Núñez Feijóo.
In Parliament, Sánchez also reproached the current leader of the PP for his former ties with drug boss Marcial Dorado: “You were the one who developed that friendship with a drug trafficking boss.
And that is the big difference between you and me -said the president of the government-.
With that track record, you have been able to climb to the top of your political party.
And in my party, you would not have even become a town councilor.”
“Sánchez seeks my personal destruction”
Díaz Ayuso spoke this Wednesday from Leganés, about half an hour from Puerta del Sol. There he held his government meeting and defended himself.
“Pedro Sánchez is sitting in political and economic corruption and this is not going to cover it up even if he asks for my resignation a thousand times,” he said.
“The president of the government who tomorrow (Thursday) is going to approve the most corrupt law of democracy, the law that grants amnesty to criminals and suspected terrorists, has asked for my resignation.
I imagine that to try to cover up that scandal,” Díaz Ayuso stressed.
He was thus referring to the amnesty law for the Catalan independence movement that Congress will discuss and will almost certainly approve on Thursday, March 14.
“He seeks to destabilize me through my personal destruction when the only one destroyed here is him,” he insisted.
And she clarified what she knows, according to her, about the situation her boyfriend is going through: “As far as I know, my partner is suffering a wild tax inspection that affects 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2022, to delay the almost 600 thousand euros that the Treasury owes you.”
“It is false that he is the one who owes 350 thousand euros for fraud,” said Díaz Ayuso.
Not only does he not owe anything, but it is the Treasury that owes him."
And he defended him: “He is a private citizen who is being besieged by all the power of a State because he is my partner.
Would we talk about all this if he weren't my partner?
“How many millions of tax inspections are there per year?”
“It is a crazy inspection.
Here there is no plot or ghost companies as is being said - he stressed -.
“It is a scandalous political persecution where everything smells shady.”
Isabel Díaz Ayuso lives today with her partner in an apartment in Chamberí that the Spanish press values at close to one million euros.
“It's not a million-dollar apartment (apartment), it's not mine, it's mortgaged, it's legal,” she said this Wednesday.
“I have been living on rent for almost 20 years,” added Díaz Ayuso.
I am accompanying my partner living at home.
He is an individual and he can buy any home he wants.
And I have the right to sleep in the bed I choose and that does not mean I am responsible for anything.”
less fruit
“I ask Mrs. Ayuso for more transparency and less fruit,” said the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, ironically, alluding to the reaction that Díaz Ayuso had the day Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as president and alluding to “a possible case of corruption related to the president of the Community of Madrid.”
The reference referred to the alleged enrichment of the Madrid president's brother.
“Son of a bitch!” Díaz Ayuso exclaimed under her breath from her guest seat in the Congress of Deputies.
The cameras, which focused on her when Sánchez mentioned her, recorded the movement of her lips.
Díaz Ayuso's entourage wanted to soften the outburst: “The president said: 'I like fruit,'” was the justification.