The PSOE and the PP throw their responsibilities in the face for the Balearic derivative of the Koldo case. And they will continue to do so. Instruction documents which affects the Government of the Balearic Islands They mention two heavyweights from both parties: the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, and the popular parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado. A statement that has hardened the already high degree of confrontation between both parties. The amnesty has vanished from the political debate even though there are barely days left to approve the law’s opinion for the second time and even after the Supreme Court’s decision to charge the former president Carles Puigdemont for terrorism.
Such is the determination of the popular party to focus on the alleged network, that the PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, barely wanted to evaluate the Supreme Court’s order this Friday. “We will talk about this next week.” The popular leadership will continue firing from all fronts with the Koldo case, although the attacks against members of the Government will be dosed to focus the messages and not confuse the focus. This Friday it was Armengol’s turn. The next target will be the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, as the person most responsible for the investigations, according to sources in Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s cabinet. And they are not ruling out any name to appear in the Senate investigative committee. In the PSOE they will continue to insist on the telephone taps that plague the PP. “Either you are willing to go to the end, or you start to have problems, like the PP does. This shows one thing: they did not learn anything after the vote of no confidence. They continue to think that everything ‘is a plot against the PP’, indicate sources from the PSOE leadership.
This Friday, the popular ones took another step in their offensive against the alleged corrupt plot by demanding the resignation of Armengol due to the latest news published about her alleged involvement as Balearic president in the previous term. Opposite, the socialists announced that they will request the appearance of the number two of the PP in the investigation commission of the lower house for its appearance in the summary. The Balearic PSOE also called for the resignation of the current regional president, the popular Marga Prohens, for not having continued with the process of claiming 2.6 million euros from a company in the alleged network for purchasing medical supplies during the pandemic, they maintain.
Regarding the Balearic branch of the investigation, a Civil Guard report includes a conversation by José Luis Ábalos’ former advisor Koldo García Izaguirre in which he boasts of having arranged a meeting with Tellado. The appointment, which has not been verified in the investigation, would have been agreed upon according to García Izaguirre to try to get the Balearic Government, chaired by the popular Prohens since the May elections, to withdraw a claim of 2.6 million euros for the purchase of masks that did not correspond to those ordered.
That claim was formalized by her predecessor, the socialist Armengol, after losing the regional elections in May and after three years of having received the merchandise from a company linked to the alleged corrupt plot (the team of the former Socialist Executive maintains that it warned to the company in March 2023). An order from Judge Ismael Moreno also indicates that García Izaguirre met with Ábalos so that he could act as an “intermediary.” García Izaguirre, according to the instruction, would have turned to the former minister to try to stop the Balearic Government’s claim. The magistrate also points to the Cantabrian businessman Jacobo Pombo, formed in Nuevas Generaciones of the PP, as a mediator.
According to the order of February 7 by Judge Ismael Moreno, there are a series of communications between those investigated from which it is inferred that “if the Balearic Administration within a period of three months—deadline January 18, 2024—” does not It was expressly stated, “the administrative procedure would expire, and therefore, the claim of almost three million euros would occur.” The magistrate also indicates that “from the observation of the telephone communications of those investigated, a few days before the indicated deadline, communications that address this matter are no longer observed, and it can be deduced that the claim may have expired.”
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Besides, The world He announced on Thursday night that the Government led by Armengol endorsed the company related to the alleged plot in August 2020 when it already knew that the masks were defective: it described them as “satisfactory.” This report continued its course to receive European funds charged to the cost of medical supplies, this information adds.
With all these elements on the table, revealed this Friday – and added to the facts already known previously about the Koldo case—, PSOE and PP clashed, raising the level of tension even further. “Armengol’s main task is to represent all Spaniards as the third authority of the State. He compromises the honorability of Congress. She cannot reach the next plenary session as president,” said PP spokesperson Borja Sémper at a press conference at the party headquarters. Minister Grande-Marlaska will be the next one designated by the PP. The Popular Party already stated this Friday, in public and private, that Koldo García Izaguirre mentions Tellado in his conversations to implicate the PP because he had been previously informed by the Interior that he was being investigated and they point to Grande-Marlaska as responsible for the “tip”. Along these lines, they make a parallel with the Faisán case.
Although the PP leadership tried this Friday to put the focus on Armengol, it did not prevent Tellado from leaving the discursive framework and claiming without evidence during an interview in EsRadio that research on Koldo case “can lead to a case of irregular financing” of the PSOE. Both Sánchez and several socialist ministers of the PSOE defended themselves on Wednesday in the control session in Congress, recalling precisely the black accounting of the PP proven in the ruling of the Bárcenas casewhich led to Sánchez’s subsequent motion of censure against former president Mariano Rajoy.
“I don’t know very well what the PP’s request for responsibility is: it is during its mandate that the actions that had been attempted in the previous administration have not taken place,” said the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, in Barcelona, in reference to the Prohens legislature. And she charged against the popular ones: “Many times you scold so that they don’t scold you. You try to shake off your responsibility by looking back.”
After knowing the order of Judge Ismael Moreno, sources from the PSOE leadership maintained this Friday that the new Balearic Government led by Prohens “let time pass until the claim was void”, preventing the money from being recovered. Under this reasoning, they demand “explanations” from the popular Executive of the Balearic Islands and from Tellado, who they say was “the man chosen to convince” Prohens not to continue with the claim. “The claim sleeps in a drawer until the deadline passes,” insist sources from the socialist leadership, who advance that they will also request the appearance of Jacobo Pombo in the investigation commission.
Resignation request
From Palma, the PSOE of the Balearic Islands joined the criticism and called for the resignation of the regional president. “What we have learned is that the plot contacts Tellado and the Balearic Islands, they say that everything is fixed and Prohens has not said what it means when a person in a recording says that everything is fixed,” indicated the spokesperson for the parliamentary group. socialist in the Balearic Parliament, Iago Negueruela.
Prohens, for his part, defended himself in an interview on Onda Cero. “There was no transfer of powers regarding this report,” explained the Balearic president. “We are going to change it because the claim of the previous government, which did not even formally initiate the claim for the file, was limited to two million euros,” she added. The Balearic Government has appeared as a private accusation in the case opened in the National Court as an affected party and outside the national PP, which has also done so as a popular accusation. The PP will continue to shake things up from all fronts with the Koldo case, she assured.
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