What should José Luis Ábalos answer to the Supreme Court?

Today the congressional deputy of the mixed group, once expelled from the Socialist Party, will give explanations about these accusations before Leopoldo Puente, the magistrate who is investigating him in the high court, who has taken over the case against him because he is accused. “I am eager to testify,” Ábalos said this Wednesday at the exit of the lower house. The former Minister of Transport attends voluntarily. Although he asked for an adjournment to study all the documentation, he finally accepted the date proposed by Puente because he did not give him the option to modify it. In a conversation with journalists the day before the declaration, Ábalos assured that it will be “very simple” for him to “dismantle” what he calls “lies”. “There is no irregularity in any of the recruitments”, “there is no solidity of the accusations” and the complaint responds to a “revenge”. This is the story he told and which he will predictably repeat in court. As a subject, he is not obliged to tell the truth, unlike witnesses.

Some of the unknowns that will have to be clarified is to what extent he profited from these alleged irregularities and what was his relationship with Aldama. According to Ábalos, he had no direct relationship with it and, as much as he admits that he collaborated with Transports, he alleges that he relied on “many people” during his time as minister, which ended abruptly in 2021. The member of Congress was already forced to give some explanations about these black holes in the Senate, to the commission of inquiry created by the PP, where he cast doubt on the existence of the plot. “Let justice be done,” he said, when he was not yet under investigation and there was not so much information about his alleged role. Then the main one pointed out was his ex-advisor Koldo García.

The chalet, the lover’s flat and the “pre-awarded” contracts

According to the Civil Guard, while Koldo received cash payments – 10,000 euros a month in cash – Ábalos benefited from other privileges. Specifically, the ex-minister would have enjoyed the use of a villa in Cadiz – which a company “located in the sphere of control of Aldama” bought for 526,500 euros. When he stopped being a minister, he would have been evicted. During his time at the Ministry of Transport, the plot would also have covered the cost of renting an apartment in Madrid – contributing more than 80,000 euros – for a woman named Jessica, who was “linked in a very personal way to Ábalos “.

Víctor de Aldama’s statement about the flat of €2,700 per month

Aldama, in his also voluntary statement to the National Court, before the Supreme Court also appropriated the part of the investigation on the commissioner, added more accusations. According to the commissioner, he did make cash payments to Ábalos through García. He would have paid 250,000 euros just for the plot of the masks, to which more would have to be added for other concepts, apart from other favors. Aldama claimed to have witnessed the delivery of money to the ex-minister. Later, in the documentation he handed over to the Supreme Court, he revealed that he had agreed with him on a 1.9 million euro apartment in exchange for “pre-awarded” contracts to construction companies.

According to the commissioner, the agreement was that Ábalos would acquire a property owned by Aldama as a “guarantee” of the fulfillment of the “commitment” by “certain construction companies” to “pay commissions, if they were awarded certain pre-awarded public contracts , that is to say, decided before their tender.” It didn’t come to fruition. In fact, Ábalos has defended that he broke the contract for the apartment, for which he says he had to pay rent, when he saw that it was already occupied. From the Palau de la Moncloa they do not put their hands on the fire for Ábalos no matter how much they distrust Aldama and maintain that this plot, in any case, ends with the ex-minister and has no further ramifications that could affect them.