The risk that Ábalos is taking in view of the history of the Spanish Socialist Party

@ElentirENG ES 2·28·2024 · 7:02 0

When fighting forest fires, there is a firefighter technique that often provokes criticism from those who do not know their job well.

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The PSOE tries to make a counterfire with José Luis Ábalos

This technique is called backfire, and consists of controlled burning in a forest to eliminate fuel that could contribute to the spread of the fire. In politics, backfire is also a very common technique. It basically consists of sacrificing certain people in cases of corruption, expelling them from the party so that the problem does not reach higher up. It's the old scapegoat technique.

Yesterday, in Spain, we saw a clear example of backfire in politics: the Socialist Party (PSOE) has provisionally suspended the deputy and former minister José Luis Ábalos, in an attempt to charge he exclusively with the Koldo Case, the new case of corruption that is affecting the socialists, related to the irregular awards of contracts for the acquisition of masks during the pandemic, that allowed some to pocket million-dollar sums.

Ábalos resists and refuses to leave his deputy seat

This Tuesday, Ábalos offered a press conference in which he declared himself "innocent" and complained about the treatment received by his party. In addition, he presented himself as a victim: "I face all the political power. Who is going to tell me? From one side and the other. And I have to do it alone. I am a mere pawn who inserts himself into a political struggle without rules." Furthermore, he announced that he will maintain his status as a deputy and that he will join the mixed group, to continue defending his honor and his ideas and "also, attend the end of this game by forcing those who now try to throw me out into the street through the back door must look me in the face."

A useless counterfire in the face of a fire that already reaches the leadership of the PSOE

Ábalos's reaction is logical and understandable. We are facing a case of corruption that already affects the leadership of the PSOE, several ministers and the president of Congress, so try to solve the problem by sacrificing to a deputy it is a useless counterfire. Furthermore, seeing how events are unfolding and who is being implicated in this scandal, using Ábalos as a scapegoat is unjustified and a farce to try to cover up a case of corruption that not only affects Ábalos and Koldo, his trusted man: it is a case that already affects the highest leaders of the PSOE.

In fact, the fire caused by this scandal has already reached the presidency of the government, taking into account the fact that we saw this Monday here: that case sheds light on a crazy measure taken by Sánchez in 2021 in regarding masks, a measure that can only be explained as an attempt to offer a favorable legal framework for these irregular awards.

The PSOE and corruption, two old acquaintances

On the other hand, the PSOE lacks credibility when it comes to presenting itself as a party that is intransigent with political corruption. The PSOE has been marred by serious scandals of corruption whenever he has governed in Spain. The so-called Koldo Case is no exception: it is already part of a tradition in Spanish socialism, which shows a great propensity to place people with limited resources in prominent positions. scruples, a lack of scruples that Sánchez has been exhibiting with absolute shamelessness, first granting pardons to their allies convicted of corruption crimes and now offering them an amnesty, with the sole purpose of obtaining a personal benefit for Sánchez himself: permanence in power at any price.

The risk that Ábalos assumes taking into account the history of the PSOE

The worst thing about the PSOE's attempt to make a counterfire by sacrificing Ábalos is that the former minister was a person of Sánchez's utmost confidence, and everything indicates that he could take revenge for the attempt to use him as a scapegoat "pulling the blanket", that is, exposing the involvement of other socialist leaders in that corruption scandal. I suppose that Ábalos will have already taken precautions, since he will know well what his now former party colleagues are capable of if they are threatened by his possible revelations.

We are not talking about just another party. Let us remember that the PSOE is a party that was involved in the murder of an opposition deputy in 1936, a crime that triggered the Spanish Civil War, and also in a scandal of State terrorism, the GAL, in the 1980s. These are two very serious events for which the PSOE has never apologized, at the same time that it promoted laws to rewrite history to its liking. In case there is any doubt, yesterday The PSOE broke the law by making Ábalos's personal data public, such as his National Identity Document number, his address and his email address. It will be precisely now that Ábalos begins to wish he had played in any other party.

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Photo: Europa Press.