José Luis Ábalos, former Minister of Transport and currently deputy of the Mixed Group, has already spent several nights in the prison of Soto del Real, where he remains in provisional detention without bail by order of the Supreme Court. The investigating magistrate considered that there was an “extreme” risk of flight in the investigation into the alleged irregular commissions linked to contracts for masks during the pandemic.
While his judicial situation progresses, the former minister’s entourage has begun to publicly express its discomfort. The most forceful statement has come from his eldest son, Víctor Ábalos, who in interviews to El Mundo and Vozpópuli has directly blamed the PSOE leadership for the “political collapse” of his father.
The theory of “Operation Navalcarnero” and the accusations against the PSOE
The son of the former minister argues that the fall of Ábalos is not only explained by the case of the masks, but by internal tensions that (according to his testimony) date back to 2020. That episode, which he calls “operation Navalcarnero”, would have been the trigger for a deterioration in the relationship between his father and several party leaders.
According to his version, the ex-wife of the former minister had allegedly delivered compromising information to two key figures of the PSOE at that time: Adriana Lastra and Maritcha Ruiz Mateos. For Víctor Ábalos, this fact generated mistrust and “dehumanization” within the socialist core, and ended up leading to the departure of his father from the Government.
The son of the former minister also points directly to President Pedro Sánchez, to whom he attributes the final decision to remove him. He assures that José Luis Ábalos was foreseen as Minister of Defense in the reshuffle of the Executive, and that the current head of the department, Margarita Robles, would have known about this possibility before the dismissal.
In his statements, he also denies that he or his father had accounts abroad or had received commissions, and denies being a front man, although the UCO mentions it in the summary.
Court case moves forward: Anticorruption requests 24 years in prison for Ábalos
The criminal proceedings continue as the political controversy grows: the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is requesting 24 years in prison for José Luis Ábalos for crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery and embezzlement, in relation to the emergency contracts awarded in 2020.
The accusation also points to his former advisor, Koldo García, and the businessman Víctor de Aldama, whom it considers part of the network that would have obtained irregular benefits during the pandemic.
Within this context, Víctor Ábalos launched a particularly striking accusation: he claims that the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, offered his father a “blank check” when the case broke out. This alleged offer would include assuming legal expenses, facilitating his entry into the consulting firm Acento and ensuring media presence in television talk shows.
It also links Cerdán to the company Servinabar, which was awarded public contracts, and claims that the leader fell internally due to recordings made by Koldo García.
PSOE response: “Falsehoods” and an attempt at “blackmail”.
The accusations of the former minister’s son have provoked an immediate response from the PSOE headquarters. The party spokeswoman, Montse Mínguez, categorically rejected his statements, describing them as “falsehoods” and affirming that the party “will not allow any kind of blackmail”.
Mínguez recalled that Ábalos has been out of the Socialist Group for almost two years and assured that the party acted “firmly” when indications against him arose. He stressed that “it is the time of Justice” and claimed the alleged zero tolerance policy of the PSOE with corruption cases.
The spokeswoman also criticized that the Popular Party has returned to quote Santos Cerdán in the parliamentary committee on contracts for masks, comparing this maneuver with past citations that coincided with key institutional events.
