Política

“I have nothing to do with Plus Ultra,” assured former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero last March 2 in the Senate. But this morning the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has summoned him as a suspect for an alleged crime of influence peddling and other related offenses within the framework of the Plus Ultra case. Zapatero will have to appear before the magistrate next June 2. In parallel, the judicial police are raiding the former president’s offices today. The secrecy of the investigation was lifted this morning, but some details of the Plus Ultra case are already known.

The advertising and public relations company Whathefav, owned by Laura and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa, the daughters of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, received more than one million euros in the payment scheme linked to the former Prime Minister following the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra, according to the court order in the case.

The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has at his disposal telephone interceptions and WhatsApp messages sent between the top executives of the airline Plus Ultra and the network allegedly led by former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. These conversations now point to the former socialist leader, as stated in the order accessed by La Vanguardia.

The former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has released a video this Tuesday in which he wanted to respond to the notification he received this very morning from the National Court, summoning him as an investigated party – what was formerly called “accused” – for the next June 2, for alleged corruption crimes in the case of the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra.

The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama places the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as the alleged leader of “a stable and hierarchical structure of influence peddling” whose purpose “is the obtaining of economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before public bodies in favor of third parties, mainly Plus Ultra.”

The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has lifted this Tuesday the secrecy of the proceedings of the Plus Ultra case, in which he is investigating, among others, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, once the search of the official office of the former prime minister began this morning.

The PP has reacted immediately after it became known that the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been charged with the alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, and forgery in the so-called Plus Ultra case. Miguel Tellado, secretary general of the Popular Party, has stated that this fact “is of extreme seriousness” and has linked Pedro Sánchez to the case.

Already last week, when rumors began to circulate about the existence of a possible judicial investigation into José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Moncloa claimed that “there is no evidence of the accusations” against the former Prime Minister that could incriminate him in the case of the bailout of the airline Plus Ultra. In the Government, moreover, they have always maintained that there was no irregularity in the aid granted to this airline after the coronavirus pandemic crisis. “Zero concern,” they cut off at the Moncloa.

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