The statement by businessman Víctor de Aldamaa key piece in the ‘Koldo case’, this Thursday caused an earthquake at the center of the political debate: the so-called ‘corrupting nexus’ of the plot voluntarily declared before Judge Ismael Moreno and provided new information on different derivatives of the case. In his testimony, directly pointed out several members and former members of the Government of Spain and the PSOE.
Several ministers and politicians, cited by Aldama in his statement, They have announced that they will file a complaint against the businessman for what they consider insults and slander against them.
José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García
The current deputy, former Minister of Transport and former number 3 of the PSOE, and his advisor occupy a central part in Aldama’s testimony: both would have received money (hundreds of thousands of euros) in the form of “gifts” from Aldama, according to Aldama and collects The Country.
Koldo García is a key character in Aldama’s story: he would have been the intermediary in the Administration to obtain allocations for masks in the pandemic, and Aldama’s interlocutor with Ábalos and other members of the Government and the PSOE.
María Jesús Montero and her chief of staff, Carlos Moreno
Aldama summoned the current vice president and Minister of Finance on two occasions: according to El País, the businessman pointed to Montero among the members of the Government who supposedly planned to meet with Delcy Rodriguez and, therefore, I knew about his trip to Spain in January 2020when she was banned from the European Union; I find that in the end it did not occur.
He also claimed to have met “by videoconference” with the vice president and that, at one point, Koldo García would have asked for 25,000 euros for Montero’s chief of staffCarlos Moreno, according to information published by El País.
Santos Cerdán, secretary of organization of the PSOE
Current deputy and organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán would be, according to Aldama’s statement, another of the beneficiaries of money from the businessman: The alleged intermediary of the plot assured that he gave him other 15,000 euros to the deputy in an envelope after attending a tender “from a construction company whose name I prefer not to say,” according to publications The World.
“Koldo tells me that we should not get into the realm of… that there are quotas. He explains to me that there are quotas and that the Basque quota belongs to Santos Cerdán,” said the alleged commission agent, according to information from El Mundo, which clarified that delivery occurred “in a bar across the street” from the socialist headquarters of Ferraz.
Teresa Ribera, Nadia Calviño and Ángel Víctor Torres
Aldama would also have explained thatand met with Teresa Ribera and Nadia Calviñovice presidents of the Government: with the head of the Ecological Transition, the businessman would have met “on several occasions” for projects related “to emptied Spain”: “She knew perfectly well who I was,” he said in his statement, according to El Mundo.
Regarding Calviño, Aldama assured that he maintained “very tense” conversations with her and with María Jesús Montero on account of the rescue by the Government of Air Europa; conversations of which Ábalos and Sánchez would have been aware, he explained in his statement collected by El Mundo.
Aldama too declared that he handed over 50,000 euros to the then Canary Islands president and current Minister of Territorial Policy, Angel Victor Torresand that other ministers, such as Marlaska, Ribera, Illa, Montero, Ábalos or Pedro Sánchez himself were aware of Delcy Rodríguez’s trip and had initially scheduled to have a dinner with her, according to Aldama’s testimony published by El Country.
Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government
Victor de Aldama He assured that Pedro Sánchez knew him and that their meeting at a PSOE event, in February 2019, was not fortuitous, but that it was President Pedro Sánchez who asked to meet himaccording to what Ábalos’ advisor, Koldo García, told him, and publishes RTVE. It was there where the famous photo was taken with the president revealed by El Mundo.
The businessman He assures that Sánchez would have thanked him for his mediation work in Mexico in favor of Spanish companies: “Thank you for what you are doing, you have kept me informed,” the president reportedly said to de Aldama, according to El Mundo. He also declared that, according to what Koldo García had told him, it was Sánchez who decided that García would be Ábalos’ advisor in the Ministry of Transportation, according to RTVE.
Besides, Aldama linked Sánchez and Ábalos unequivocally: The businessman explained that “Mr. Ábalos received five or six calls from the President of the Government every day” and He assured that the former minister “was everything” for the president: “He was the campaign manager, the organization secretary, he was the minister of the most important ministry in this country, he was his consultant, no one hid me in the meetings,” according to his testimony published by El Mundo.