José Luis Ábalos has acknowledged these days, from his home in Valencia, that he is “afraid” of being able to go to prison this Thursday, which had been applied to him, and this Wednesday he has decided to make a move. The former minister, former Secretary of Organization and former number two of the PSOE has published two tweets shooting at members of the Government. In the first, he assures that “in-person sources” told him that “it is true” that the current President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, met in 2018 with the leader of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, to address the negotiations of the motion of censure that led to the departure of former popular president Mariano Rajoy from La Moncloa. Both President Sánchez and Otegi have categorically denied that quote. In a second message, he suggests that the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, let “people without the right to do so” use her official home. .
Regarding the meeting of President Pedro Sánchez, Santos Cerdán and Arnaldo Otegui in 2018 in a hamlet to negotiate the motion of censure against Rajoy, I can only say what in-person sources told me, and that is that that interview existed.
— José Luis Ábalos (@abalosmeco)
The still deputy José Luis Ábalos, now attached to the Mixed Group of Congress after being expelled from the socialist party when his case broke out with the UCO reports, in which he validates the version that his former advisor, Koldo García, has been ratifying for several days, regarding the fact that in May 2018 Sánchez saw Otegi. The tweet literally says: “About the meeting of President Pedro Sánchez, Santos Cerdán and Arnaldo Otegui in 2018 in a hamlet to negotiate the motion of censure against Rajoy, I can only say what in-person sources told me, and that is that that interview existed.”
Ábalos, who has barely set foot in Congress and who has registered only 16 written questions to the Government in these two years of legislature, this Tuesday registered another two in which he demands from the Executive, and in particular from his successor in the Ministry of Transport, clarifications on alleged rigging and irregular awards in the Port of Valencia, whose president is appointed by the Generalitat Valenciana.
The information about this alleged meeting between Sánchez and Otegi and confirmed below by Koldo García himself, who also faces this Thursday the possibility that the Supreme Court will modify its precautionary measures and could end the day in jail. During last weekend, both sources from La Moncloa and later President Sánchez himself in a public appearance and other executive officials denied this information and classified it as “absolutely false.” Sources from the Executive emphasized that Sánchez has never met or spoken with Otegi, but they also admitted a certain strangeness about what Ábalos may pursue with this unexpected action because in the Government they confirm that they have nothing to do with the decision that the Supreme Court may adopt this Thursday nor much influence in that institution.
Socialist sources and those from other parties directly involved in those conversations remember that in those days at the end of May 2018, Sánchez himself then had many doubts about the possibility of success of that motion and highlight that the determining factor was the change in position of the PNV, which went in just one week from supporting a Budget project of the Rajoy Government to joining the bloc that overthrew it.
The leader of EH Bildu went so far as to affirm that he had never been or spoken to Sánchez: “It is categorical and absolutely false that this meeting existed. It is an invention and an fake new of the reactionary bloc.” Otegi went further and connected that news with others that were published at the time about the 2004 Atocha attacks that some media and parties wrongly attributed to ETA. The leader patriot He added: “On March 11 they lied to win elections and today they are blatantly lying again to try to get to the Government.”
The first vice president and deputy general secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, also denied this Wednesday, upon leaving the Government control session in Congress, the veracity of this information and referred to the various denials, but she also alluded to the fact that she did not understand that her former colleague, with whom she once admitted that she had a very good relationship, has now wanted to join those who want to harass President Sánchez by not telling the truth: “I am surprised that Ábalos “He agrees to that, it’s not his style. I don’t think Ábalos will go to war or go down that path. I would be disappointed if he starts to sow doubts. ” And he related that tweet confirming the appointment with Otegi to the fact that there are people who become upset when faced with judicial processes, which is why he did not grant him any credit and once again insisted that Ábalos should leave his deputy record. The PSOE and the Government placed these comments by the former socialist number two in their defense strategy before the Supreme Court hearing this Thursday.
The Minister of Finance pointed there to the judicial evidence that at the time the former manager and former treasurer of the PP convicted by the Gürtel case He was asked for 29 years when he had hidden 50 million euros in Switzerland and he noted that now Ábalos is being asked for 24 years when he claims that he only has 6,000 euros in the account.
Montero placed those comments by Ábalos in his defense strategy before the hearing in the Supreme Court this Thursday and did not grant him any credit and insisted once again that he should leave the deputy record.
The PP did not take long to take advantage of Ábalos’ words to target Sánchez again. Su concluded that in this way the former minister had confirmed “what Sánchez and his people denied and tried to hide. Pedro Sánchez’s hooded pact with Otegi was political but also economic. An indignity that will always haunt him.”
