The judge summons Ábalos and Koldo to testify regarding the "irregular income" revealed by the Civil Guard.

MadridFormer Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García are scheduled to testify before the Supreme Court on October 15 and 16. The judge investigating them, Leopoldo Puente, issued an order following the report from the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO), released on Friday, which concluded that the former Socialist leader had received 95,000 euros that were not justified and which would have been used to pay personal expenses through Koldo García. "The report delves into the evidence of criminal activity on the part of Ábalos and García, who may have maintained non-transparent methods of communicating their respective assets and would have indiscriminately received irregular and opaque income from various sources, possibly the result of the commission of serious criminal offenses." In an interview on Spanish National Television (TVE), Ábalos said this Monday that he can justify these discrepancies and pointed out that the reason is that he owes money.

The police report revealed that García covered Ábalos' personal expenses, such as child support for one of his children, salaries for a domestic employee, and travel, among others. And the Civil Guard investigation has not found any bank transfers that would have returned that money to his former advisor. "Given the relationship between Ábalos' regular income and the expenses he was required to incur, it appears evidently justified that the suspect could have benefited from some irregular source of income, which would correspond to the illicit receipt of cash allegedly attributed to him in this case and with García. García then, in some way, assumed a portion of Ábalos's expenses," the judge notes.

"The fact that Ábalos, from 2018 until 2023, did not make any cash withdrawals from his bank accounts points in this direction, unlike what he had ordinarily done until then and what he did again starting in 2024," Puente adds. The judge observes that these "intersection areas" between the assets of Ábalos and Koldo do not match the statements the former minister had made in court when he stated that the relationship between the two "was no more than that between a minister and one of his various advisors." Now he wants to question both of them again, and after that, "what's appropriate will be agreed upon." That is, the adoption of new precautionary measures could be considered. The lawyers for the separate investigation into the former PSOE organization secretary, Santos Cerdán, may also attend this hearing.

Irregular financing?

The Minister of the Interior and judge of the National Court in special services, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stated in an interview on TVE that he did not see in the UCO report "any issue relating to possible" irregular financing, as the right and the extreme right have quickly exposed". Nor does Judge Puente make any mention of this hypothesis, that the PSOE had been financed irregularly, in his ruling this Monday. Ábalos himself has denied this theory and has made it clear that the excess images with cash "are not extra salaries." "That is a fantasy, underlined. The former socialist organization secretary has explained that he paid some issues in advance and that, subsequently, the party made expense settlements in cash. who "expected an enrichment of assets linked to million-dollar commissions." "If the conclusion is 95,000 euros of which the source is unknown, I think the film of large commissions is very limited. It is not the seriousness they expected," he stressed in the interview on TVE. Regarding the language of sheets, lettuces and chistostorras To supposedly refer to banknotes, the former minister has made it clear that there is no WhatsApp your speaker oflettuces nor of chistorras, and has contextualized the folios on real sheets of paper. "The intention of the jargon is to make you belong to a criminal organization," he complained. Ábalos expressed confidence that after the statement, he will remain on provisional release.

Ammunition for the PP

Judicial developments are the PP's great hope for wearing down Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, took advantage of a public event to point out the "major corruption schemes surrounding the president of the Spanish government, his entourage, and the party." "This is a direct responsibility if the three and the two circulate with bills, envelopes... It's something that doesn't escape the direction and knowledge of the number one," affirmed Ayuso, who emphasized that there are new revelations "every day," "that always lead to the same epicenter and person in charge," and that Sánchez is "plotting hard to resign."

From Génova, the PP's deputy secretary for institutional regeneration, Cuca Gamarra, has demanded that Sánchez "appear immediately" to explain the evidence in the UCO report and has criticized his recent "72 hours of silence." The Popular Party (PP) is also demanding access to documentation that proves the "legitimate origin" of the money in the envelopes handed out by the PSOE. "What is a party doing with so much cash? What is its origin?" Gamarra asked at a press conference. The PP leader announced that they will summon the two managers and two secretaries from Ferraz who handled the expense reports to the Senate's investigative committee and criticized the other parties in the plurinational majority for continuing to support Sánchez. "Silence makes them accomplices and responsible by omission," she emphasized.