Barcelona"The party of Begoña Gómez's husband, Sabiniano Gómez's son-in-law, David Azagra's brother, José Luis Ábalos's head of government, and Santos Cerdán's PSOE leader is extremely concerned about the indictment of a minister who served as such more than seven years ago and who has no employment relationship with the party." This was the message that the PP communicated to journalists at 12:30 p.m. this Thursday, just an hour before announcing that Cristóbal Montoro had resigned. The sour tone shows that the case has fallen like a bomb in Génova, since if we add this scandal to the fact that Pedro Sánchez survived the parliamentary appearance on July 9, the result is that the momentum of the PP congress two weeks ago has evaporated in a flash. In football terms, it's as if the game were tied right at the end of the first half after leading 0-2. It is true that the second one is still to come, but the mood is no longer the same.
And why can we say that the PSOE has tied? Well, because the Montoro case is unlike anything known so far and touches a very sensitive nerve among taxpayers, namely the Tax Agency. Until now, the scandals involving members of the Aznar and Rajoy governments had to do with the party (Gürtel) or with activities outside the executive (Rato, Zaplana) or in the regional governments (Matas). Other scandals, such as the Kitchen case or Operation Catalunya, have to do with the use of security forces, in the form of a patriotic police, to persecute political adversaries. But with Montoro, what is being investigated is a plot that, from the very heart of the government, offered tailor-made tax changes to companies or sectors in exchange for money. And that was done by the person in charge of collecting taxes from citizens!
Secondly, there is another, important factor. Montoro is not just any one in the PP. He's someone who has been involved in the economic policy making of both PP governments during the democratic era. As Secretary of State and later as a minister under José María Aznar, and as a minister under Mariano Rajoy. Montoro's figure cannot be banished without tarnishing the economic legacy of the PP governments. And even more so when Montoro's predecessor in the ministry was, precisely, Rodrigo Rato. Montoro's indictment mortally wounds one of the PP's main arguments, which is that with them, it will restore seriousness and efficiency to economic policy. And even more so when one of their star recruits at the last Congress is Alberto Nadal, who worked with Montoro at the Treasury.
The Liberals' bête noire
Thirdly, it's worth noting that Montoro has always been the bête noire of the liberal sectors of the PP, as the first thing he did upon coming to power in 2011 was raise taxes, the opposite of what Rajoy had promised during his campaign. This has led, for example, to Federico Jiménez Losantos spending a good portion of his esRadio program insulting him, calling him, among other things, "infamous" and "criminal." The worst thing that could happen to Feijóo is that the right-wing media would also get involved in this case, and it seems that at least those in Isabel Díaz Ayuso's orbit will take advantage of this opportunity to get even.
In short, Feijóo can try to pretend that all this has nothing to do with him, but the fact that they had to force his resignation as a member of Montoro already indicates that they themselves have gauged the particularly damaging potential of this case. And on top of that, there may be further ramifications of the case, as some of the emails in the case refer to the use of the Tax Agency for political purposes, for example, to hinder judicial investigations into the Bárcenas case or to harm Podemos in the Monedero case. Thus, the Patriotic Tax Agency served a dual purpose: to weaken political adversaries and line its own pockets. Oh, and also to make life miserable for the journalists who tried to uncover the case and, in general, for anyone who bothered it. Behavior that perfectly illustrates a certain way of understanding power and the state.
