The former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos has presented allegations to the expulsion file that the PSOE has opened for him and has sent several documents to the party in which he charges against the secretary of Organization of the party, Santos Cerdán, whom he holds responsible for having made his personal data public. Ábalos exercises that right, but he also counterattacks and points directly to Cerdán, his successor in the Organization Secretariat and his interlocutor in the days when the party tried to convince her to leave his seat.
The former minister has presented two briefs to defend himself from the process that the party leadership has opened against him. In the first of them, sent to the Ethics and Guarantees Commission, accused of publishing personal data in the file where the measures applied against him were communicated after he refused to hand over his deputy certificate, as the Federal Executive had demanded.
The party distributed a first version of a resolution, signed by Cerdán, in whichIt seemed like the former minister’s private data such as the number of the National Identity Document or the address from your home. Minutes later they sent a correction in which that information no longer appeared.
Therefore Ábalos demands that a file be opened to investigate the facts to “determine the eventual responsibility of the Organization Secretary, Santos Cerdán”, according to the document and considers that he may have committed a “very serious” offense. He also emphasizes that he is the person “statutorily obliged to ensure the protection of affiliates’ data.”
In a second letter, in this case addressed to the Organization Secretariat itself, Ábalos complains that the party transferred its decision to open a file before the 24-hour period expired that they had given him to hand in his deputy certificate. To prove it, he attaches several press headlines in which this information appears on the morning of Tuesday, February 27, before the ultimatum expired.
On the eve, Monday, February 26, The PSOE spokesperson, Esther Peña, stated that the Federal Executive had unanimously decided to ask Ábalos to give up his seat. for “political responsibility” in the ‘Koldo case’, which investigates alleged bribery in contracts for the purchase of anticovid material.
The previous week, the Civil Guard had arrested Koldo García Izaguirre, advisor to Ábalos during his time at the Ministry of Transportation. According to the investigation, he participated in an alleged scheme of rigged contracts during the pandemic. Peña made it clear that there was no judicial or police charge or accusation regarding Ábalos, but in any case they demanded that he step aside due to “political responsibility.”
Despite everything, Ábalos refused to leave his seat, He left the Socialist Parliamentary Group and went to the Mixed Group, claiming that he was innocent and handing over his record would be the same as acknowledging his guilt.
That same Tuesday, after Ábalos made public his decision to resist in Congress, the PSOE announced that it was provisionally suspending him from militancy and opening disciplinary proceedings for having ignored the party’s resolutions.
The report also indicated that Ábalos had five days to send the file’s investigator the evidence with which he intends to defend himself and could also file an appeal before the Ethics and Guarantees Commission within a period of ten business days.