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Bites, cocaine, bosses, money laundering, brothels, tips, yachts, ferraris, weapons, briefcases… All those words flew like smelly missiles this Wednesday over the Congressional chamber, in what at times resembled a cross between a crime novel and the Torrente saga. He and you more, that classic of Spanish politics every time corruption is addressed, experienced a true festival in the Government control session. The two main parties got muddied in a battle where not a single piece of garbage was left unthrown. To the unstoppable offensive of the PP regarding the Koldo case, The socialists retaliated with the latest revelations about the collection of million-dollar commissions for the sale of masks and the tax fraud of the boyfriend of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. And that’s where Pedro Sánchez threw himself at the neck of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Three times he demanded that she ask Ayuso for her resignation “even if it costs her her job like it did.” [Pablo] Married”.
Undeterred by the latest embarrassing revelations of eldiario.es regarding Ayuso’s partner, the PP unleashed a new storm of accusations for the Koldo case, some based on judicial investigations and others on pure conjecture. It was an unstoppable crescendowhich began with Feijóo himself, went through intermediate stations such as the statement by his parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, that the Minister of the Interior “destroys evidence,” and culminated with the sentencing of a deputy who was making her debut in these matters, Mirian Guardiola: “This is the most corrupt Government in the democratic history of Spain.”
Feijóo opened the session like the previous time: accusing the president of “knowing and covering up” that Koldo García, former advisor to José Luis Ábalos in the Ministry of Transportation, charged illegal commissions for the purchase of masks during the worst of the pandemic. What was the leader of the PP based on? In the “complicit silence” of Sánchez. At times, Feijóo was categorical in his accusations, even of which there is no evidence, such as when he stated that the president “is being investigated.” And in others, however, he was careful to prefix a “probably” before unleashing a new accusation. “His future is threatened by corruption,” he proclaimed.
Sánchez had already experienced a control session the day before in the Senate and then he refrained from using the Prosecutor’s complaint against Ayuso’s partner to deflect the incessant accusations of the PP. He had reserved it as a silver bullet for the duel with Feijóo. The socialist leader recalled that a year ago the popular people demanded the resignation of the previous general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, due to the accusation of her husband in a case that was finally annulled due to a formal defect. And there he issued the challenge: to demand that Ayuso resign, emphasizing that this was what cost Casado his position after the previous leader of the PP denounced that the president’s brother had collected commissions for the sale of masks to the Madrid Government.
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Feijóo responded by quoting without citing the president’s wife, Begoña Gómez, mentioned in some reports for her professional relationship with Globalia, the tourist company rescued by her husband’s government. He sounded halfway between a recrimination and a warning: “she has made a very serious mistake, I’m sure they won’t be very happy at her house.” And, as if until then everything had been a placid exchange of views, he concluded: “There you go. He is responsible for raising the tone.”
The socialist leader was not deterred and dusted off the other depth charge he had prepared: Feijóo’s old friendship, when he was a senior official in the Xunta, with the Galician kingpin Marcial Dorado. It was not the first time that Sánchez used the matter against the opposition leader, but he had never been so exhaustive in citing trips and other details of that relationship. All to conclude with a lesson in exemplarity: “With that record you have been able to climb to the top of your party. In mine I wouldn’t have even made it to town councillor.”
After Feijóo, Santiago Abascal arrived, also involved in corruption. The leader of Vox had a difficult time raising the bar, but he tried: “You are the kingpin of the corruption plot. “He governs with delinquents, criminals and enemies of Spain of all kinds.” Sánchez responded more relaxed than with Feijóo, although without abandoning the and you more: He rubbed the seven million euros transferred from Vox accounts to a foundation chaired by Abascal himself.
The PP returned with Cuca Gamarra, who, despite asking the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, began by addressing Sánchez with this string: “Coca, bites, brothels, saunas… That’s Tito Berni [exdiputado socialista implicado en otro caso] and that is Koldo, that is the GPS of the car that took him to La Moncloa.” Montero, as expected, pulled Ayuso. And then, before another popular one, Juan Bravo, about his management as a counselor of the Junta de Andalucía. Bravo had launched by stating that “when things are worse for the Spanish, things are better for you” and that, in the most dramatic moments of the pandemic, the socialists “were dedicated to stealing.”
For the first time in many weeks, the PP asked the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, again. It was done by Tellado, who, however, put it before her that in reality the question was not directed at her, but, once again, at denouncing the ignominious socialist corruption. The leader of Sumar also tried not to splash in the mud. “I’m not going to contribute to this show,” she promised. Díaz left some pinch for his PSOE partners and warned that a carousel of accusations about corruption like the one that was occurring “erodes democracy.” She attempted to move the debate onto more constructive ground by proposing the creation of an independent body to prevent corruption.
It was just an interlude before returning to the mud. The deputies were each releasing their ration, without missing the now routine attacks of the popular ones on the president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol. She didn’t care about the topic of each question. Even when a young PP deputy, Miguel Ángel Sastre, without ceasing to cite corruption, was interested in housing policies, the minister of the sector, Isabel Rodríguez, answered him, referring to the apartment acquired in Madrid by Ayuso’s partner: “ What I cannot commit to is that every Spaniard can access a million-euro apartment in Chamberí.” And so on for an hour and a half.
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