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.
The chair co-directed at the Complutense University by the wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, was created following the established regulations and there are no opaque incomes in the accounts of the wife of the Prime Minister. This is the main conclusion that the UCO points out in its report on the case being investigated by Judge Peinado, which has brought Pedro Sánchez’s wife to the brink of trial.
The Spanish political landscape is always shifting, but the vibration is special these days. There are pieces that may fall to the ground. In this context, La Vanguardia interviews Arnaldo Otegi, leader of EH Bildu, the most stable and silent ally of President Pedro Sánchez.
One week after the judicial tsunami that ended a president’s prestige in minutes, I continue, like many Spaniards, wondering at what point José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero underwent such a transformation that those who knew him, we knew him, do not recognize him in the ruling…
Nineteen months of investigation into former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will presumably be revealed today. The judge of the National Court, in charge of the Plus Ultra case, has lifted the secrecy of the file once the most important procedure, the search of the former leader’s official office, has been carried out. From this Monday, the parties involved in the process, including popular accusations, will have access to the case and it will be inevitable that details of the investigation become known.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero defined Julio Martínez Martínez as “a good friend” during his appearance in the Senate. The former president also acknowledged that he worked drafting reports for one of Martínez’s companies, Análisis Relevante. It has now emerged that the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police maintains that Martínez was also the alleged frontman for Zapatero: “He is the boss’s bank.”