Política

For almost 40 years Andalusia was considered a socialist stronghold. It seemed like an enormous impregnable fortress. The socialists managed to blend in with the landscape in a remarkable way by identifying their brand with the construction of autonomy and the strengthening of an Andalusian identity in the early 80s. The so-called “captive vote” did the rest: for a long time the PSOE was skillful in attributing to itself the granting of agricultural aid and the implementation of public services. All this gave it an undeniable political stability. Now it is one of the few autonomous communities where the PP governs with an absolute majority, at a time when that achievement is a rarity. Has Andalusia turned to the right?

It was many hours of testimony, seven and a half. The commissioner Víctor de Aldama was interrogated before the Supreme Court throughout the entire day yesterday. He admitted some of his illicit businesses. He claimed to have paid commissions and gifts to the former minister José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García. And he also tried to implicate the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, with the shady dealings of the network.

Víctor de Aldama had to prove before the Supreme Court that he is telling the truth; it is his lifeline to have his collaboration with justice and repentance recognized and to achieve a considerable reduction of the sentence. To do this, he had to betray former minister José Luis Ábalos and his loyal squire Koldo García. And he did. Eight hours of testimony in which he recounted how he was paying them a kind of salary of 10,000 euros per month, in addition to other gifts including rents, vacations, apartments, motorcycles, cars, and even medical treatments, totaling between three and a half and four million. These amounts were qualified, but the estimate of what the former minister and his advisor received would be that, according to the commission agent’s version. The money did not all come out of his pocket. Aldama put in part, and other companies seeking contracts – with which he acted as a link – paid the rest. Part went to the minister and the advisor and another part to the PSOE, always according to his version.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has visited Andalusia again this Wednesday to support Juanma Moreno in his quest to renew the absolute majority. On this occasion, the leader of the PP has been in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) and wanted to claim the line and the “change” that Moreno has given to Andalusia, which must be “extended” to Spain, and has attacked the PSOE candidate María Jesús Montero for corruption as he recalled that she has been in the government during the ERE case and the Koldo case.

The wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, is expected to file a complaint against the well-known far-right troublemaker Vito Quiles for an alleged “assault” suffered inside a café, according to sources from La Moncloa.

Rescue operation. After being exonerated on Monday due to age and health reasons, the children close ranks with Jordi Pujol i Soley. Five of them emphasized this morning in the trial ongoing at the National Court against the family that they “never” had an account in Andorra nor had any participation or benefited in any way from the ‘legacy’ of their grandfather, Florenci Pujol i Brugat.

The popular Jorge Azcón is again president of Aragón. After almost five months of institutional deadlock in the community, the popular leader has renewed the position with the support of his 26 deputies and the 13 from Vox (there was one absent), which in February doubled its representation and has leveraged that new weight both in the ideology of the government program and in its organizational chart, where they will hold a vice presidency and three ministries (Deregulation, Social Welfare and Family; Environment and Tourism; and Livestock, Agriculture and Food).

Chief inspector with professional ID 81.067 is not just another police officer among the line of uniformed officers who have testified—or will testify—as witnesses in the National Court room where the Kitchen Operation trial is taking place. So far, some—assuming their testimony will be brief—have answered questions standing about their knowledge of the parapolice device used to monitor the former treasurer of the Popular Party, Luis Bárcenas. Others have preferred to sit down and get comfortable, uncertain about how long the interrogation will last. Agent 81.067 went further: he used a side table to carefully arrange stacks of reports and a laptop on which he could consult data down to the last detail. All this under the incredulous gaze of the court, which had to remind him that the oral hearing “favors spontaneity,” “what memory allows to recall.” The meticulous police officer is Manuel Morocho, the lead investigator of the Gürtel case, who struck at the defenses’ weak point by confirming that there was a parallel investigation into Bárcenas without judicial permission.

The rejection yesterday in Congress of the decree containing the extraordinary extension of rents opens a scenario of legal uncertainty that may pit tenants who, while the regulation was in force, requested this two-year contract extension, against the owners of these homes, to which the Government admits that there may be lawsuits and trusts that the courts will be in favor of the right to housing.

Víctor de Almada’s statement this Wednesday in the ongoing Supreme Court trial against former minister José Luis Ábalos, in which the controversial businessman accused Pedro Sánchez of being aware of alleged irregular financing in the PSOE, although again without providing any evidence, has once again stirred up Moncloa and the Ferraz leadership, who have expressed their irritation. The socialists immediately announced that they will again seek protection before the Supreme Court, for the “insults and slanders” they have attributed to Aldama. “We will not allow ourselves to be defamed with impunity,” warned the PSOE leadership.