There will be no meeting between Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sánchez. Palazzo Chigi and La Moncloa had been working for days on a meeting at the Italian Government headquarters for Tuesday afternoon, but in the end “the schedules did not coincide,” diplomatic sources explain, adding that there is a commitment to organize a bilateral meeting at the first European summit where both coincide.

Former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has pointed out “absurd conjectures” in the reports of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police sent to judge José Luis Calama, where it is stated that the socialist leader headed the “apex” of an influence network, and has attributed the accusations to his support for Pedro Sánchez in the 23-J electoral campaign.

In the midst of a political storm following the judicial indictment of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for alleged corruption crimes linked to the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra for 53 million euros in 2021, and now awaiting the National Court judge José Luis Calama to lift the secrecy of the investigation file, Pedro Sánchez has maintained his public schedule this Monday unaffected by this crisis, and has even tried to convey calm, despite the alarm spreading within the Government and the PSOE over the uncertainty of how this process will evolve. And how far it will escalate.

At the end of the reports from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, the investigators reach the “conclusion” that there is “sufficient evidence” to place José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the head of an organized network of influence peddling in favor of clients – such as Plus Ultra – who would pay, through a corporate environment controlled by his partner, the former Prime Minister.