Ábalos resigns his seat as a member of parliament in Congress

MadridJosé Luis Ábalos had resisted throughout the investigation and even after the Supreme Court had already decided to send him to trial for one branch of the alleged corruption scheme—the mask contracts during the pandemic. Finally, the former Minister of Transport has resigned his seat in Congress. He announced this on Wednesday through an account that publishes messages on his behalf. Ábalos justified his decision by stating that just over a week ago, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against the decision to send him to pretrial detention. Faced with the high court's decision to keep him incarcerated, and with no options for release in the short term, Ábalos concluded that he "cannot hold the seat." The former deputy also argued that "all his activity" is now focused on "exercising his right to defense and proving his innocence."

Thus, Ábalos has submitted a written statement to the Speaker of the Lower House announcing his decision to resign his seat as a deputy for Valencia. Although the former third-ranking Socialist Party member was no longer a PSOE deputy—having joined the mixed group when the scandal broke—the move will mean that the Socialist parliamentary group will regain the seat it had temporarily lost, bringing its total back to 121. For Ábalos, the decision will not change his current situation. Since his indictment in the mask case was upheld, he has not received his salary nor has he been able to exercise his right to vote—his imprisonment had suspended him as a deputy. For the PSOE, however, regaining a deputy will make it easier to secure a majority in close votes that require only a simple majority rather than an absolute majority.

Ábalos was the first member of parliament to be imprisoned while still in office, but until now he had always defended keeping his seat, arguing that the presumption of innocence is a pillar of the rule of law and that it was necessary to "uphold the integrity of the right to representation." He reiterated this argument in his message to X despite this change of heart, which has already prompted an extraordinary meeting of the Congress's governing board. "The resignation is effective as of today," sources from the Speaker's office of the lower house confirmed, explaining that the Central Electoral Board (JEC) has already been informed so that it can issue the credentials to the next person on the Socialist Party's electoral list. Regarding Ábalos's legal situation, although this decision means he loses his parliamentary immunity, he will still be tried in the Supreme Court for the mask case because the trial has already begun—the Supreme Court's doctrine establishes that this procedural stage is the deadline for waiving parliamentary immunity. The trial is expected to take place in April. However, it will impact the other branch of the investigation still underway, that of the public works contracts in which former Socialist leader Santos Cerdán is being investigated. This case will be transferred to the National Court, though it remains to be seen whether a new investigation will be opened or if it will be integrated into the existing ones concerning the corruption scheme.