“I cannot end my political career and my career as a corrupt person when I am innocent.” That was José Luis Ábalos, the former transport minister, speaking to reporters in Congress in late February 2024, days after a face-mask scandal reached the top of Spain’s Socialist party.
The trigger was the arrest of Koldo García, Ábalos’s former adviser, in a case over alleged corruption in the purchase of masks during the Covid pandemic. Sur in English reported that García and others were under investigation over illegal multi-million commissions on masks sold to the government at inflated prices. The paper described him as a man who rose from brothel bouncer to the full confidence of Ábalos and other PSOE figures.
A 24-hour ultimatum
Ábalos, who ran the party as its organizational secretary and left Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet in July 2021, is not under investigation in the case. Party headquarters still wanted his seat. According to El Nacional, the PSOE gave him 24 hours to give up his place in the Congress of Deputies, arguing that he carried “political responsibility”.
Senior Socialists piled on. Industry and tourism minister Jordi Hereu said that “sometimes, one has to make the decision to give way”. Digital transformation minister José Luis Escrivá said he would resign in Ábalos’s position. María Jesús Montero, number two in both the party and the government, put it more obliquely: “I know what I would do and you know what I would do.”
Ábalos refuses
He did not go. Ábalos quit as president of the interior committee in Congress, then announced he would leave the Socialist group and sit as an independent in the mixed group, alongside Podemos’s four MPs and three others. Resigning, he said, “would be interpreted as a sign of guilt”, and he insisted he was “not accused of anything”. He took no questions.
The PSOE responded within moments, provisionally suspending his party membership and opening a disciplinary file. Sur reported that the party suspended him for disobedience.
On his own record as minister, Ábalos said he had only sought “protective equipment as quickly and as cheaply as possible”, and that cutting costs would also cut intermediaries’ commissions. García’s alleged illicit enrichment from commissions was, he said, “disappointing and loathsome”, though “justice will resolve it”.
Sánchez, meanwhile, told the opening of the Socialist International in Madrid that the fight against corruption had to be “relentless” wherever it comes from and “whoever falls”.
Pressure spreads
The scandal did not stop with Ábalos. Sur reported that Francina Armengol, the former Balearic president and now Speaker of Congress, was being asked why she had not sought a refund when a 3.7-million-euro consignment of masks linked to those under investigation turned out to be the wrong type. Paid for in the end with EU funds, the masks were still sitting unused in a warehouse, according to reports.
Sources
- Pressure piles on PSOE after party grandee refuses to step down over Covid face mask scandal in Spain | Sur in English
- Ábalos breaks with PSOE over Koldo case and will be an MP outside the party to "restore his honour" | El Nacional
