Koldo García wanted to become yesterday the protector and squire of his former boss, José Luis Ábalos, during his interrogation as an accused in the trial held at the Supreme Court for the so-called mask case. The former advisor took on as his own the dealings that were for the former Minister of Transport because, as he said, “he will always be grateful” for appointing him as his personal advisor after meeting him during the PSOE primaries in 2017, after which Pedro Sánchez was proclaimed secretary general.
Read more Unions take to the streets on May Day “against wars and fascism”
Everything he did, he said, was to help others. That said, he never had decision-making power within the Ministry. He said he had never signed anything and that he also did not receive money from the businessman Víctor de Aldama. The explanation for his handling of cash was one: the PSOE.
García admits he used the term “chistorras” to talk about cash
But with an explanation he considered “convincing.” When he processed the expense reports for the party’s organization secretariat, which Ábalos directed as well as the Ministry, the party returned it to him in cash. “They gave me all kinds of bills, including 500s,” he said, contrary to what the party’s cashiers claimed, who defended that such large bills were not given.
Therefore, what the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard said about the use of the term “chistorras” to refer to 500-euro bills was true, but its origin, according to García, was legal. He also received 500-euro cash for the tourist rentals he rented out. Although he admits he used the term “chistorras” to talk about 500-euro bills, he denies that “soles” or “lechugas” referred to another type of cash. “Lettuces are lettuces,” he stated.
Ábalos’s former advisor maintains that his relationship with the commission agent Víctor de Aldama was one of “friendship”
In this case, he contradicted the PSOE’s statements, although he also offered a mixed message because he defended – to his own benefit – that the party has not financed itself illegally and that they had not received money from companies, denying Aldama’s claims, in a statement full of time bombs. “The PSOE does not take money from anyone,” he defended.
He also saved all the Government members pointed out by the commission agent, who the day before had claimed that several leaders had received envelopes from him or had asked for them. García denied knowing the then Vice President of the Government, María Jesús Montero, and, of course, that his chief of staff received any envelope with 25,000 euros. “It is unjustly defaming him,” he snapped.
He also denied calling Pedro Sánchez as Aldama claimed: “I have never had his phone”
García was eager to speak. He has been in provisional prison since November, along with Ábalos. He said he wanted to defend his innocence and, for that reason, accepted to answer the questions of the Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, who is asking for 19 and a half years in prison for him.
Read more Day one, zero enthusiasm
The tension between them was evident because, as García rightly said, the prosecutor does not believe in his innocence. The former advisor snapped at Luzón that he had “bad taste” for talking about certain women and reproached his “smile” while answering him.
The former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos to testify on Monday as the main accused before the Supreme Court
The former advisor of Ábalos tried point by point to explain the supposed gifts that Aldama said he gave him, who even spoke of millions of euros in donations. For García, it is all an invention of the commission agent. He neither paid for a motorcycle, nor a car, nor a fertility treatment. About the latter, he clarified that Aldama lent him 6,000 euros in one of the attempts and then he returned it. The reason? They were “friends” and because of that friendship he helped him access certain ministries. What García wanted to make clear is that he likes to “help,” but he rejected that it was as a financial consideration or any kind of bribes.
He asked Aldama for help in searching for masks in the middle of the pandemic because he was “lost,” but he assured that he always ignored “until the judicial process began” that his friend was behind the awarding of Soluciones de gestión. From his statement, it appears that the friendship was, on Aldama’s part, false because when he was kicked out of the Ministry their relationship ended.
For that reason, he does not have a high opinion of him. Neither for his suspicious relationships with certain people nor for his lies. Because García flatly denied that he had any kind of relationship or contact with Pedro Sánchez, contrary to what his former friend said, who asserted that he called him directly. “It’s common sense. It’s not true,” he said, adding that he does not have and has never had the phone number of the Prime Minister. In fact, he joked: “If I had had it, I would have called him to look for a job when I was fired” in July 2021.
He also denied that Aldama paid for the apartment of Ábalos’s ex-mistress, Jéssica Rodríguez. Nor the minister’s vacations nor a chalet in Cádiz. And, according to García, if there are conversations with the businessman about it, it was because he “consulted me about everything or almost everything” because they were friends. After Koldo’s statement, the trial enters its final phase. The former minister Ábalos is scheduled to testify on Monday.
Read more Sympathy for the doctor
