Montoro resigns from the PP after his indictment

Barcelona / MadridFormer Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro has resigned from the PP following his indictment. Party sources have explained that Montoro announced his decision to resign this Thursday morning. The move comes the day after a judge in Tarragona notified him that he and his team in the Spanish government are being investigated for allegedly manipulating laws—making legislative changes in exchange for commissions. This judicial decision has put Alberto Núñez Feijóo in a difficult position, as he has focused his strategy for weeks on attacking Pedro Sánchez over the Santos Cerdán case. Montoro's indictment shook up the PP leader's plan, forcing him to go on the defensive while the PSOE uses the case to counterattack. In Génova, they are distancing themselves from the former minister, although until Thursday he remained linked to the party—he attended the PP congress a couple of weekends ago—and they are defending the integrity of the current Génova team.

The PP's line, for the moment, is to emphasize that Montoro left the Spanish government "more than seven years ago" and that "he has no labor ties with Feijóo's team or with the current PP." However, the Popular Party ignores the fact that a couple of years ago, according to information fromThe IndependentFeijóo turned to members of former minister Montoro's team for advice. Among the most prominent names is one of those charged by Tarragona's investigating court number two, former Secretary of State for Finance Miguel Ferré, who held a "decisive position" in the plot, according to the judge who charged him. "Montoro was the only member of the officials under investigation," stressed PP sources. This is not Feijóo's only connection to Montoro's team. In the last renewal of the Popular Party leadership, the party leader appointed Alberto Nadal as Deputy Secretary of Economy. Nadal was Secretary of State for Budgets at the end of Montoro's term. However, he is not charged for the alleged irregularities in the Ministry of Finance.

On the other hand, the PSOE, accustomed to being the butt of every blow for months following the Cerdán case, has found in Montoro's indictment A breath of fresh air and a golden opportunity to turn things around. "The Popular Party hasn't changed. Because it carries corruption within it [...]. Feijóo hasn't come to regenerate anything. He's come to restore the worst," PSOE sources denounced this Thursday. At Ferraz, they focused on Feijóo's ties to collaborators of the former Finance Minister. "Some will think Montoro is a thing of the past. But he's also present in the PP: just two years ago, Feijóo recovered Montoro's inner circle to strengthen his economic team," the Socialists argue. The PSOE has also taken advantage of the PP's waiting more than fifteen hours to react to accuse them of having lectured them about Cerdán when they haven't acted decisively as soon as the indictment became known.

"Not a single measure, not a single condemnation, just the impotence of someone who never does anything and only dedicates himself to lecturing. Will they open an expulsion file? What regeneration measures does the PP intend to adopt?" Socialist sources wondered before it was announced that Montoro had resigned from the party. The PP has assured that last night the party's rights and guarantees committee had already decided—although they did not report it—to "open an information procedure related to this case," which now "remains in limbo." Feijóo does not have a public agenda this Thursday, and those responsible for reacting were the party's deputy secretary of finance, Juan Bravo, and the deputy secretary of regional and municipal policy, Elías Bendodo. "If we do a broad analysis, I think we are not hearing talk here about commissions, prostitutes, the placement of friends or chairs that do not exist," Bravo said on Antena 3.

Shortly after, Bendodo also referred to the cases surrounding Sánchez and criticized "salvation." "It would not occur to us to blame Sánchez for either Filesa [the PSOE corruption case during the Felipe González era] or the economic crisis that occurred during Zapatero's presidency. It would be good if the PSOE had that same prudence and did not try to link President Feijóo with assumptions from almost ten years ago. "It evolves," Bendodo said. The first vice president of the Spanish government and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, described the events as "very serious" and responded that Feijóo should provide explanations, since for her it is "a way of acting" intrinsic to the PP, which "is on the side of the privileged."

Díaz attacks Montoro

Regarding other political spaces, from Sumar, the second vice president of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, attacked Montoro and defended the anti-corruption measures announced by Sánchez, ten of them proposed by her party, in the wake of the Cerdán case. "The PP's economic miracle was corruption," she said in a media address. The spokesperson for Comuns in the Parliament, David Cid, insisted on TV3 that "it shows once again that the PP always excels when it comes to stealing and establishing itself as a criminal organization." However, Cid also warned the PSOE that it must act: "The response cannot be 'and you more'."

The PSOE is trying to set an example.

For now, the PSOE's objective is to counter the PP's reaction to the Montoro case by immediately forcing Cerdán's resignation and announcing anti-corruption measures. It must be taken into account that in the case of the Socialists, the scandal involved the party's number three, and that Montoro, although present at the last PP congress, had no organizational responsibilities, unlike Cerdán. However, the PSOE has not missed the opportunity to divert attention with a case that undermines Feijóo's strategy, and he is now experiencing his own taste of justice.