BarcelonaPedro Sánchez came to government in June 2018 after a motion of no confidence in Mariano Rajoy caused by a court conviction for corruption against the PP as a party. Therefore, the banner under which he bases his political career, at least at first, is that of the regeneration of politics, cleanliness and the fight against corruption. All this is what is now at stake with the case that affects the former minister and ex-secretary of organization of the PSOE José Luis Ábalos, the person who organized the primary campaign that he won against Susana Díaz and who certainly encouraged him to present the motion of censure.
To understand why Sánchez is in the hands of Ábalos, it is necessary to consider the serious crisis that the PSOE is experiencing in 2017, when the main cadres and leaders of the party turn their backs on their general secretary and defenestrate him. Sánchez is suddenly alone and unsure of what to do. This is the moment when Ábalos enters the scene, a veteran of the PSPV federation then faced with President Ximo Puig, who distrusts him. Ábalos is a party man, who knows very well all his sources and the way of doing politics to the Valencianthat is, used to surviving in a party in permanent crisis until it regained power in 2015, with a multitude of internal battles and stabbings between colleagues. He is someone who instills respect and conveys security, and that pleases Sánchez, who needs someone precisely like him to face the party machinery. And Ábalos sees the opportunity to take revenge on Puig, who at that time is facing Sánchez.
Sánchez put all the power of the party in his hands and then gave him the ministry that manages the most money, that of Development, as Zapatero had done before with José Blanco, by the way. But Ábalos, as we have seen, had a side B. Puig, who eventually reconciled with Sánchez, already warned him. And this one, seeing that his minister had become a regular in the right-wing press as a result of the Delcy case and others, took advantage of a government reshuffle to get rid of him.
If we are to believe what Sánchez’s entourage says, the Spanish president knew nothing of Ábalos’ activities, but he suspected that the data was wrong when the case of the masks broke out, and that is why he claimed the act and expelled him from the party. Now they trust that the firewall will be enough, but there is one thing that Sánchez will never be able to recover, which is the anti-corruption aura with which he came to government.
