The UCO (University of Cordoba) points to new irregularities by Ábalos: paid vacations in Marbella to boost the Air Europa bailout.

MadridThe list of irregularities allegedly committed by José Luis Ábalos while Minister of Transport continues to grow. A new report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, more than 200 pages long, provides new elements to the Supreme Court's investigation into the member of the mixed group in Congress. The UCO suggests that Ábalos may have received "financial compensation" in exchange for promoting the bailout of Air Europa. The airline launched the solvency fund to help strategic companies survive, launched by the Spanish government in the wake of the pandemic. In November 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a €475 million injection into the company linked to Víctor de Aldama, the broker in the scheme investigated by the High Court along with Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García.

"Minister Ábalos' influence could have been key," the Civil Guard notes regarding the authorization of the rescue, given the "difficulties" he would have encountered in obtaining it. Three months before its approval, the Ministry of Transport issued a press release announcing this, which Air Europa executives had allegedly lobbied to obtain. The UCO (Central Office of the Ministry of Transport) compiled contacts with Koldo and Aldama representing Ábalos and Javier Hidalgo, the former CEO of Globalia, the business group that owns Air Europa, respectively, in the days prior to the press release's publication. Just one day later, on August 9, 2020, Ábalos expressed to Koldo his desire to go on vacation to Málaga a few days later, and the former advisor began making arrangements to find accommodation.

"I'm telling you this is free for the inconvenience caused," the former advisor told the former minister while visiting homes. Aside from Ábalos, Koldo also informed Aldama of the real estate options for the former minister. The chosen option was a villa called Villa Parra (Marbella, Málaga), where Ábalos stayed from August 12 to 23, at a cost of 9,800 euros. "It is possible to point to Aldama as a link between Ábalos's vacation stay at Villa Parra and the press release announcing the future rescue of Air Europa," concludes the UCO. After this stay, the difficulties in bringing the operation to fruition continued.

The Civil Guard reports that Aldama explained to Koldo on September 3 that Hidalgo was looking for "alternatives," so he "called Begoña," a hypothetical reference to Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, who is being investigated by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado for alleged corruption. "Let him call Pedro or whoever is necessary," Koldo responded. The People's Party (PP) has already requested the Spanish president appear before the court to provide explanations in light of the revelations in this latest report.

Contracts for ex-partners

After Ábalos's ex-partner, Jéssica Rodríguez, testified before the Supreme Court that she was paid by two public companies (Ineco and Tragsatec) without showing up to work, the UCO (Court of Appeals) points out that she wasn't the only ex-partner to benefit from her relationship with the former minister. The report mentions another case in which Ábalos allegedly used his "influence" to have another woman linked to the former minister hired by Logirail, a public company under the Ministry of Transport. In Rodríguez's case, the UCO has messages from Koldo pressuring the then-president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera, to make the contract go through with Ineco. "Otherwise, José [Luis Ábalos] will cut my balls off," he told her.