The ‘Abalos Case’ threatens the government with new revelations | Spain
José Luis Ábalos Meco entered through the big door of the Ministry of transport in June 2018 and left under suspicion in July 2021. He arrived at the Government when he was secretary of the PSOE organization and main support of Pedro Sánchez. He was the parliamentary spokesman for the motion of censure that knocked Mariano Rajoy for a massive corruption scandal in the PP. During those three years of immense power in the party and in the government, Ábalos allegedly allowed the corrupt plot directed by Commissioner Víctor de Aldama He did business on account of public funds thanks to decisions of the minister himself and his closest environment.
Commissioner Aldama fed his profit in ministry with some accredited bribes, like the payment of an apartment to the couple of Ábalos (Jésica R.) at a rate of 2,700 euros per month; and other gifts pending verification. Aldama told the judge that he had paid illegal commissions to Ábalos for two million euros and Koldo García, his lieutenant, for 500,000. Fourteen months after the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor dismantled the plot, the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard continues to investigate the messages found in the mobiles of those involved in the plot of more serious corruption.
The new findings corner the Government of Pedro Sánchez. In its latest report, the Civil Guard opens an investigation that puts the so -called suspicion Air Europa rescue. Analyzed the messages between the main protagonists of the corrupt plot – Victor Aldama, José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García – the UCO concludes: « Aldama would have used the performance of Ábalos to achieve the known as a rescue of Air Europa in November 2020. »
The country has crossed this work of the UCO with the results of open research in the Senate on the same case to reach a different conclusion based on verifiable facts. The protagonists of the corrupt plot fooled each other to pretend an influence on the procedure they never had.
The pressureist’s pressure to the minister. Aldama, hired as an advisor by Air Europa in November 2019, five months before Sánchez decreed The alarm by pandemiche pressed since August 2020 to Minister Ábalos to achieve aid to the airline. A few months before that moment, the minister had facilitated Aldama the mask business with which he had won six million. Aldama, in turn, had been paying the apartment of the couple of Ábalos for more. The commissioner He then demanded the minister to push for aid to the airline. And Ábalos showed the commissioner who worked on the matter, indicates the UCO report. But neither Ábalos influenced the granting of aid during the processing of the file, nor Aldama got Air Europa to believe that their efforts gave some fruit, according to the analysis of the facts.
Bartolomé Lora, vice president of the SEPI (appointed for that position in 2017 by the Government of Mariano Rajoy) accredited with facts and data the cleaning of the rescue, as noted in the Senate Research Commission. During the request of the application Air Europa helppresented on August 20, 2020, Lora was president of the Management Council of the Solvency Support Fund for Strategic Companies, created by the Government in June of that year. Lora was head and supervisor for the 30 operations approved between 2020 and 2022 for 3,256 million, including Air Europa.
In the crossing messages crossed between the corrupt plot, the name of Bartolomé Lora comes out several times, from which it follows that Minister Ábalos could press the vice president of the SEPI to facilitate the rescue.
« Victor Aldama to Koldo García: » Good morning. Please call Bartolomé (Lora) to Javi (Er Hidalgo, CEO of Air Europa). «
–Koldo García: « At this moment the minister is gathered. When he finishes, he gets in touch with Bartolomé. »
Ábalos never called Bartolomé Lora. The Vice President of the SEPI told it all of detail in the Senate Research Commission: “I never spoke with Ábalos of this file. I never informed anyone from the government directly from these files. I have not received instructions or Mr. (Pedro) Sánchez or anyone. newspapers.
The secondary role of the Council of Ministers. The UCO report that assumes that Aldama managed to influence the rescue of Air Europa to clarify that it is the SEPI who manages the applications, but includes this qualification: « While it is finally the Council of Ministers who approves the aid. »
Lora explained in the Senate that only this aid can be approved in the Council of Ministers Prior Proposal of the Advisory Council of the Fund for the Solvency Support of Strategic Companies that he himself presided. The file finally approved by the Council of Ministers establishes very hard conditions for the two loans for 475 million to be returned in November 2026 that saved Air Europa from bankruptcy. Its president, Juan José Hidalgo, declared in June 2020: « If they do not give us aid, we will last less than a news. For ourselves it is impossible that we can get out of it. »
Air Europa had 10,000 employees and operated in 17 airports when Spain closed through the pandemic. The losses accumulated by the company between 2020 and 2021 amounted to 1,000 million. Studied the heritage of the Hidalgo family, owner of Air Europa, the SEPI demanded guarantees for the State for a value close to 1,000 million. Among them were hotels for more than 400 million; the headquarters of Air Europa in Pozuelo (Madrid) and Palma de Mallorca; Airport and airport services maintenance businesses on land, and even the Air Europa sales agreement to IAG. On these loans, the company has already paid interest for 64.7 million. The company demanded that the SEPI, without any success, a downward renegotiation of the guarantees and garments deposited.
An appointment to Begoña Gómez denied by the facts. The Civil Guard highlights in its report a message that Aldama (Air Europa Advisor) sends to Koldo García to inform him, on September 3, 2020 – 13 days after the request for aid before the SEPI – that Javier Hidalgo “is screwed, very fucking in the east issue, life is looking for and has just called Begoña (Gómez), wife of the president of the Government”. If Aldama’s information was true – he has been denied before and now by Air Europa through public notes – Hidalgo failed to advance with his calls to Begoña Gómez because judging by the messages of the following weeks and months, the agreement was complicated.
September 22. Aldama to Javier Hidalgo: « I know you are destroyed. » « Let me help you to solve this situation. Trust me, I know that you are very bad but trust me. Tell Ramiro (director of the Legal Department of Air Europa who negotiated the rescue with the technicians of the SEPI) that he carries theme Sepi and I take care of the rest with the ministers and take this shit forward. I know you are destroyed but the only thing I want is to help you. » Hidalgo didn’t even answer him.
October 30. Aldama to Koldo García: « The offer is withdrawn »: « ICO continues to put SEPI does not answer favorably, the offer is withdrawn and there is no financing. »
Aldama did not seem well informed because Koldo answers 12 minutes later: « He tells me that the Council of Ministers approves on Tuesday or yes. » On Tuesday, November 3, it was approved. Aldama answered Koldo García that he didn’t know anything about Javier Hidalgo.
The judicial guarantee to the rescue. The Vice President of the SEPI repeated in his appearance in the Senate that processed the Air Europa application rigorously applying European and Spanish regulations. For a year and a half, the auditors of the Court of Auditors analyzed the files without finding Tacha. The General Court of the European Union (TJUE) sentenced in May 2021 that the Spanish rescue to Air Europa was legal by proportioned and non -discriminatory. « This solution, » says the sentence, « is consistent with the objective of the regime, aimed at remedying the serious disturbance of the Spanish economy from a medium and long -term economic development perspective. » On that same date (May 19, 2021) the Court annulled the authorizations of the European Commission to the bailouts of Tap, the main Portuguese airline, with a loan of 1.2 billion, and the Dutch support to KLM, the main Dutch airline, with 3.4 billion. The Court of Justice of the European Union (TJUE) last year dismissed another complaint that had filed the low -cost airline Ryanair against the fund of 10,000 million that Spain created in the worst of the pandemic to help strategic companies. From this line of aids, Air Europa, Celsa, Ávoris or Hard Felguera benefited.
A suspicious note and letter. The Civil Guard attributes to the corrupt plot that an informative note will be distributed to the media, on August 7, about the convenience of the rescue to Air Europa, although this company had not yet requested the aid. The note warned that it had not yet been « decided how this aid would be implemented », and so I only reported that Air Europa was sharing with the SEPI « Details of your economic and financial situation. » The UCO report links this note to a 9,000 euros gift that someone made to the minister to spend a few days of vacation in a Malaga chalet. The Civil Guard suggests that Aldama could be paid, although there is no evidence that accredits it or the commissioner has assumed in his public statements this fact. Air Europa denies having paid that rent. The UCO also uses as proof of the supposed treatment of Air Europa a letter from the SEPI that, in reality, only confirms that Air Europa has requested an aid of 400 million euros, that the application has been admitted for processing and is in the analysis period. And he adds: « This letter does not imply commitment to grant the applicant any temporary public support charged to the Fund. »
