It will be very difficult for the so-called “Koldo case” not to seriously impact the Spanish Government and its head, in a corruption scandal that has been known since last year and that in recent days has taken on new legal aspects. José Luis Ábalos, 62, who was Minister of Development between 2018 and 2021 and number three of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE, center-left) is about to be accused of having benefited from a complex corrupt plot that, among other things, profited during the pandemic from the sale of masks to official entitiescharging excessive prices or demanding expensive commissions.
A devastating 233-page report, prepared by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard — a prestigious police organization for its effectiveness and political neutrality — was delivered last Wednesday to the investigating judge Ismael Moreno. The document dissects with surgical precision the complicated fabric of this plot and leaves people very close to the former minister and Ábalos himself on the brink of inclusion in the judicial processwho was Secretary of Organization of the PSOE between 2017 and 2021 and one of Sánchez’s most trusted politically and personally.
