The PP advances that it will denounce Sánchez for the alleged relationship between the rescue of Air Europa and his wife | Spain

In an action-reaction movement, the PP announced this Wednesday that it will register a complaint tomorrow with the Conflict of Interest Office “to determine the responsibility of the President of the Government for not being absent from the Councils of Ministers that made decisions favorable to a company that had ties of an economic and professional nature with his wife, Begoña Gómez”, in reference to the rescue of the airline Air Europa in November 2020. Sources from the popular leadership recognize that they have made this decision as a result of the “tone” and the content of the intervention of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in this morning’s control session in Congress. During the parliamentary debate, the socialist leader urged Alberto Núñez Feijóo to ask Isabel Díaz Ayuso to resign due to her partner’s tax fraud. Feijóo’s PP is considered “legitimized”, according to those same sources, by this political attack by the president against the Madrid leader, to counterattack by attacking the personal circle of the head of the Executive.

The PP assures that Sánchez “should have abstained” from the decision of the Council of Ministers chaired by him in November 2020 “that committed 795 million euros of public money” to the rescue of Air Europa, “due to the economic and professional relationship of the company with his wife”, according to popular sources. The alleged link between Begoña Gómez and the rescue of the airline has not given rise to any administrative or judicial investigation to date.

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The conservative party argues this alleged economic and professional relationship between the president’s wife and the rescued airline in the following way: “It is proven that Air Europa financed the university professorship of the Prime Minister’s partner just a month after Pedro Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa palace, despite the fact that she does not have an approved higher university degree. Her direct relationship with the company’s main managers is also proven. In fact, Begoña Gómez herself also went to the airline’s headquarters during the days of the rescue by the Council of Ministers, according to the media.” What Hidalgo promoted was an agreement with the IE Africa Center, a company where Gómez worked as director, to create awards that recognized the best startups in the tourism sector, establishing a specific category for African entrepreneurs.

The popular ones add that Air Europa “not only financed the chair of the president’s wife. He also had Víctor de Aldama on his payroll, arrested two weeks ago for belonging to a criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery and money laundering, to collect a debt from Venezuela; and with whom the president’s wife had also met.” And they emphasize: “De Aldama was in Barajas together with members of the Government on the night of the arrival in Spain of the vice president of Venezuela [Delcy Rodríguez]and days later, at the company headquarters.”

Consequently, the PP maintains that Sánchez “had to be absent from the deliberations and votes of the Council of Ministers by virtue of Law 3/2015, of March 30, regulating the exercise of the high office of the General Administration of the State.” According to the law, “personal interest in the matter in question” is a reason for abstention.

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In 2020, the Council of Ministers approved the rescue of Air Europa with an injection of 475 million euros of public money on account of the new solvency fund intended to support strategic companies that had been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. . The operation was carried out by granting a participatory loan of 240 million euros and another ordinary loan of 235 million, two instruments included in the regulation of the solvency fund, and which the company has to repay before 2026. At the time of the rescue , the airline was the second Spanish airline, and the one with the largest number of flights to international destinations, to 130 airports in 60 countries, and accounted for 18% of the global figure of all Spanish airlines.

The airline owned by the Hidalgo family expected losses of close to 600 million that year due to the second wave of the pandemic and the generalization of mobility restrictions. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, then explained that Air Europa met all the requirements to receive the approved aid, since the crisis had caused an undoubted “impact” on the company, which had suffered important “negative results” that made it difficult its “strategic” work and the provision of “an essential service to ensure the connectivity of Spain” and provide access to its tourist spots.

Control session

The PP recognizes that it has made the decision to file this complaint against Sánchez due to his wife’s professional activity as a result of the clash between the president and the leader of the PP this morning in the Government control session. In that debate, Sánchez has challenged Feijóo to demand the resignation of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the tax fraud committed by her partner, even if that “costs him his position”, like his predecessor in the presidency of the PP, Pablo Married. The popular ones complain that the president has “crossed the personal barrier” of Ayuso by demanding political responsibilities for his partner’s problems with the treasury, but in reality the PP has also been talking about the president’s wife for days, although she had not given the step of filing a complaint. “At the very least there is a conflict of interest,” the PP parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, had launched on March 1, twelve days ago.

In the control session, the socialist leader also brought up the “close friendship” of the head of the opposition with “a drug trafficking boss” in Galicia, in reference to Marcial Dorado. Before that, Feijóo had opened fire on Sánchez, accusing him again without evidence of having known the Koldo case and hid it, just as he had done last week, when he blurted out: “I knew it and covered it up.” In the reply, after having heard Sánchez demand Ayuso’s resignation, Feijóo warned the president: “There you are, I’m sure that at home they are not very happy with what you just said. You are responsible for raising this tone.” Two hours later, the PP announced the complaint against Sánchez.

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