[News] Ferraz denies that he gave cash to Ábalos' advisor

[SougarLord]

 

Contradictory versions. Ferraz stands out from the explanation offered yesterday in the surroundings of Koldo García Izaguirre that the PSOE will advance or settle with cash the expenses of José Luis Ábalos associated with his status as Secretary of Organization of the party. ABC revealed on Monday significant details of Minister Ábalos' trip to the Canary Islands in November, given the humanitarian emergency that was being experienced in the Islands due to the massive arrival of immigrants, and which ended up in a luxury hotel with the family on a weekend of the.

 

Ábalos 'advisor carried three envelopes with 2,500 euros in cash inside his backpack, with the labels' Ferraz ',' Ministry 'and' Jose ', to pay Ábalos' expenses. In the environment of the ministerial team it was explained that this practice, according to the testimonies collected by ABC, consists in that both the Ministry and the PSOE advance the "budget items" and then justify them (Ábalos would have maintained party contacts in Tenerife).

 

On other occasions Koldo advances the money from his pocket and then justifies it with the invoices and collects it in cash, both from the Ministry and from the party. But sources from the federal leadership of the PSOE consulted on Monday by ABC deny that explanation. Practically no party leader receives a salary from Ferraz since they do so for their public positions and it is not allowed to collect two payrolls.

 

After accession to the Government in 2018 and the 2019 elections, the bulk of the leadership is in Congress, the Senate or at different levels of Government. In Ferraz they explain that when it comes to expenses associated with his work in the party, they do not have credit cards to cover those expenses and that they work by settling them afterwards. That is, never handing over the cash. "You pay for it and then the game reimburses you if he is justified with a ticket," they officially explain in the game. These settlements also explain that in no case are they made in cash, but rather that they are made through specific deposits in a bank account.

 

In the PSOE they assure that there is "no record" of any operation consisting of handing over money and in no case do they suggest that there is movement of cash. From there, the sources consulted already refer to each person in charge and to his teams how those payments are disbursed.

 

The opposition goes on the attack

This case provoked the offensive of the opposition, which immediately demanded the appearance of the head of Transportation in the Congress of Deputies, to explain what cost that trip had, with whom he traveled, and how the expenses were covered. The first to react was the Po[CENSORED]r Party, which was blunt in stating that this case "doesn't smell bad, it stinks." "The friend Koldo, in addition to paying in 500 bills for massages and champagne, advances with his card the travel expenses of his‘ advised ’Ábalos. This does not smell bad. It sucks ", say the po[CENSORED]r ones, who accompany his comment on the social networks of the tag:" # ÁbalosDeluxe ".

 

The spokesperson for the Po[CENSORED]r Group, Cuca Gamarra, warned that "Ábalos cannot remain silent." For this reason, she announced that her group was going to request that same morning his appearance in Congress so that he could give explanations about his "suspicious trip to the Canary Islands." The deputies of the PP Andrés Lorite and Ana Belén Vázquez Blanco registered nine questions to obtain a written response from the Government, in relation to the accommodation, maintenance and leisure expenses, produced during the stay of the Minister of Transport, together with relatives and members of his ministerial cabinet at the Palacio de Isora hotel in Tenerife, in November 2020. The deputies ask for the amount paid by the Ministry on the expenses originated in that stay and ask for details of the payment method used by the Ministry.

 

Vox will ask for the resignation of José Luis Ábalos, following the information published by ABC: «With all certainty, one, two, three, four, five, even up to 52 Vox deputies are right now working to demand the minister's resignation, cease , explanations, why he pays in 500 bills, when, on the other hand, he is promoting legislative initiatives to put an end to cash ». The spokesman for the Political Action Committee, Jorge Buxadé, criticized that "they are still high in their armchairs, it seems, paying with 500 euro bills."

 

The image that should remain is this: Ábalos's escort pays with a single ticket for his parties, with a ticket that is worth more than the thousands of retirement pensions of Spaniards who have given all their lives to raise this nation are worth. It is that Ábalos should already be subject to the judicial investigation and I do not know if he is already in preventive detention for the serious crimes that have been committed. Since the Delcy case, the suitcases give a lot of play and what was inside the suitcases gives even more play, one day we will find out what was in those suitcases and what they have done with them. United We can avoid making assessments and only see a damage at the media level, since they do not consider that any questionable data is revealed. The spokesman for Ciudadanos, Edmundo Bal, said that the case seemed "very suspicious" and the party registered a battery of questions.