The former CEO of Globalia, owner of Air Europa, Francisco Javier Hidalgo, not only defended the legality of the airline’s rescue during the pandemic but also harshly criticized the conditions under which the Government finally agreed to the loan, which he described as the worst in the history of the world.
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The son of the company’s owner, a man of few words, denied that the wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, intervened in any way in the loan negotiations, nor that there was any preferential treatment from the then Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos.
Hidalgo maintained that at no time did Ábalos receive any consideration from the company during the negotiations for the rescue. Responding with a “yes” or a “no”, the businessman denied that holidays were paid for the former minister or his advisor Koldo García, nor did they receive any kind of prize, gifts, or advantages.
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Hidalgo had been summoned to testify as a witness in the trial against Ábalos, Koldo García, and businessman Víctor de Aldama for the alleged considerations paid by the latter to the head of Transport for favoring the 475 million euro loan to Air Europa.
Aldama had been hired by Hidalgo in November 2019 because he seemed like a “quite intelligent person with a lot of initiative”. He acknowledged that he had previously made arrangements with the Venezuelan government to try to recover the 200 million dollars of debt with the company “and which it still owes”.
Denies Rodríguez Zapatero’s intervention
Regarding this debt, Hidalgo explained that many people have made many efforts over the years to try to mediate to recover it, but he denied that one of those people – as he was asked – was the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Ábalos’ alleged participation in the rescue was to issue a press release from his Ministry stating that the rescue was already being processed, which would relieve the company’s creditors. Hidalgo has denied the publication of such a press release.
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Aldama sent the content of such a note in August 2020 via Whatsapp message, but Hidalgo did not even reply. He gave it no credibility. “I have no record of any official press release from the Government,” he explained. The only official communication with value that existed was in September of that year, confirming the loan by SEPI, which was responsible for granting the rescue.
Furthermore, he downplayed the work Aldama did during the negotiations to secure the loan, which he described as “cunning” because he made his head a condition.
According to Hidalgo, Aldama acted as a “transmission belt” between the company and the different ministries, but not because he had a particular relationship with them, but because of the company itself. He was just one more. “He was part of the team that participated in the company’s loan, along with the legal and financial department. He was on the institutional side. All he did was act as a communication channel with the different ministries,” he emphasized.
“Aldama transmitted information to me from different ministries: sometimes it was true, other times half-true, and other times more optimism than anything else,” the businessman snapped, denying that he had “never” eaten with Ábalos, nor had he ever met with him and Aldama jointly. He also acknowledged that he received messages from Aldama but often did not reply to them. In general, he received many messages, especially during the loan period, and does not remember many of them.
“The legal department, financial department, Pricewaterhouse, Cuatrecasas, Abogacía del Estado, Aldama, all economic departments, SEPI, and the Court of Auditors participated in this loan. And eight months after Iberia was given 1,000 million without asking anything, we were given it in November,” he complained.
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