A report from the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) concludes that the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra was “legal and transparent.” SEPI issues this study in response to the suspicions of the National Court judge José Luis Calama, who is investigating the Zapatero case and believes that this bailout was not lawful. In the order issued by the magistrate, it is considered that Plus Ultra was in a state of bankruptcy at the time of the bailout. Consequently, the government of Pedro Sánchez could not save it since the applicable European law at that time, March 2021, strictly prohibited rescuing companies in dissolution.

The Government has defended this Thursday, with an extensive document, the loan of 53 million euros granted on March 9, 2021 to the airline Plus Ultra. A financial aid, charged to the support fund for the solvency of strategic companies after the coronavirus pandemic crisis, now in the eye of the legal, political, and media storm following the indictment of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for alleged corruption crimes that would have their origin in this Executive rescue.

The eight companies identified by Judge José Luis Calama for serving to channel payments to former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero barely function as shells without activity or employees, through which money flows in and out via few accounting entries, as can be seen in their accounts filed with the Mercantile Registry.