Political storm in Spain after the forced resignation of number 3 of the Socialist Party – Liberation

The situation of the Spanish Prime Minister, The socialist Pedro Sánchezappears more and more precarious. Already destabilized by judicial investigations concerning his entourage, he has been facing this potentially more devastating scandal since Thursday, June 12. The number 3 of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), the deputy Santos Cerdán, announced in the afternoon resigning from all his posts, a few hours after The revelation of recordings Where he seems to evoke, in private, the payment of bribes to himself and to personalities from his camp.

In a press conference held in the process, Pedro Sánchez disowned his ex-collaborator and asked for forgiveness to the Spaniards for this affair of which he did not know « Absolutely nothing ». « We should never have trusted him, until today I was convinced of his integrity »pleaded the head of government, without waiting for justice to decide. However, he excluded the convocation of early elections, as required by the right opposition from Partido Popular (PP) and the extreme right of Vox.

The now ex-elected Navarre, 56, said he had not « Nothing committed illegal » and explained his withdrawal by his desire to « Defend the Socialist Party to which this country owes so much » And « Defend this government ».

Thursday morning, a judge of the Supreme Court confirmed information reported on Wednesday evening in the main media: a Civil Guard report (equivalent of the gendarmerie) reveals « The existence of concordant indices concerning the possible participation » of Santos Cerdán « In the undue allocation of a public contract », For which he would have received money.

These clues come from a series of telephone conversations, captured clandestinely, with the former socialist minister José Luis Abalos, and the gray eminence of the latter, the business man Koldo García. It was the latter who recorded the exchanges, without the knowledge of the other two. Their revelation is a new twist in an investigation which already targeted Abalos and García, and which relates to an annex file: the payment of commissions, again illegal, for purchases of health equipment during the COVVI-19 crisis.

Reproduced by the press, the remarks made over dozens of conversations are indeed unambiguous. Between 2019 and 2023, the three interlocutors spoke of occult sums linked to public works contracts in various regions, for a total of 620,000 euros already paid by beneficiary companies. And an additional 450,000 euros remaining to be collected. On several occasions, Santos gets angry with Koldo García, accusing him of saying too much on the phone. No doubt by a fear, retrospectively justified, to be spied on.

Through his resignation, Santos Cerdán renounces his parliamentary immunity and will go to the judge’s summons. « I hope to be able to devote myself exclusively to my defensehe said in a press release, And provide all the explanations necessary to demonstrate, as I have said for several days, that I have never committed anything illegal, and am not an accomplice of anything. ”

The scale of the case makes other proceedings of Spanish justice derisory against relatives of the Prime Minister. His wife Begoña Gómez is suspected of influence traffic In favor of an airline of which she was paid advisor. Air Europa has indeed benefited from a post-Pandemia rescue plan, but the defense denies any conflict of interest and argues that comparable subsidies have been paid to all transport companies.

For his part, David Sánchez, musician and brother of the government, became in 2017 responsible for the performing arts in the province of Badajoz, led by the socialists. The judges investigate if this choice was in nepotism.

Finally, another delicate affair implies the state prosecutor general, higher official of the public prosecutor, appointed by the government. A unique case in democratic Spain, Alvaro García Ortiz will soon be referred to a court, accused of damage to the secrecy of the investigation. He had released information on the alleged tax fraud of the companion of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the shady president of the Madrid region and rising figure of the PP, fierce enemy of the socialists to whom we augurs a future of « Giorgia Meloni Spanish ».

The electoral calendar fixes the next legislative elections to 2027, but today, few observers think that The resilient Pedro Sánchezin post for exactly seven years, will be able to last two years additional at La Moncloa, the Madrid Matignon.