The PP raises the pressure on the PSOE with its request that the Mediator case be investigated by Congress, which will force the Socialists to clarify with their vote if they are willing for a parliamentary commission to delve into the scope of the corruption plot of his former deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo.
Supported by the yes of several government allies, such as ERC and Compromis, to clarify what happened, the popular ones have registered this Wednesday the initiative, which must be sent to the Plenary to see if the simple majority necessary to investigate in Congress goes ahead. parallel to the courts in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
In the ranks of the PP they point out that the extortion of companies can go beyond Fuentes Curbelo from the Canary Islands, alias Tito Berni, and they insist on finding out if there are other deputies involved, as the intermediary who gives the case its name, Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, points out. and if Congress was one of the venues of the plot.
A Boris Johnson in the Ramses
They want to know the identity of “the 15 of Ramsés”, among which they point out Galician, Andalusian and Aragonese deputies, who were summoned to a dinner in a reserved area of the Puerta de Alcalá restaurant in Madrid, starting at eleven o’clock in the night of October 21, 2020, in full restrictions due to the covid pandemic.
If that dinner was finally held, as the mediator claims, the fifteen diners and the owners of the premises were becoming “a Boris Johnson”, alluding to the behavior that put the British Prime Minister in the pillory until he forced his resignation: despising the sanitary standards that his own government dictated.
This same Monday the measurer has affirmed in the Cuatro program Everything is a lie that he remembers having participated in five meals with socialist deputies, in which, among other things, they talked about expediting procedures in the implementation of solar panels by some Provincial Councils.
For its part, the leadership of the socialist parliamentary group in Congress has sent a letter to its deputies in which it assures that it will defend those who are being “intentionally and totally unfairly singled out” due to the Mediator case and will help them “in the legal measures they want to exercise”. A socialist deputy, Luis Carlos Sahuquillo, has already announced legal action against whoever places him at those dinners.
The PSOE ensures tranquility
Thus, another front is opened in the Mediator case, before which the leadership of the PSOE, according to its general deputy secretary, María Jesús Montero, is “calm” and on which the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has not referred since on Monday.
Since then, the Socialists have been installed in the argument that Fuentes Curbelo was already forced to leave the party and the seat in Congress and that the matter is already being investigated by the courts, while accusing the PP of “hypertrophying this situation to cover up their corruption cases” in Ibiza or Marbella.
“Zero tolerance for any case of corruption”, Montero insisted, words that have been repeated by the spokesperson for the Executive, Isabel Rodríguez, the socialist ministers of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and Agriculture, Luis Planas, who assures that he has no knowledge of the use of EU funds for the plot, and for the PSOE spokesman in Congress, Patxi López.
From the other part of the Government, Vice President Yolanda Díaz has limited herself to relating the case to “forms of government of the old bipartisanship.”
Investigate to settle responsibilities
There are no similarities between the Tito Berni case and those of the president of the Island Council of Ibiza, Vicent Marí, or the mayoress of Marbella and party senator, Ángeles Muñoz, has assured the PP spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, in charge of announcing the commission of investigation after a meeting of deputies, senators and popular MEPs.
All of them believe that “an investigative commission is more necessary than ever to settle political responsibilities” in what they describe as “a case of socialist corruption that is full of bites, drugs and prostituted women”, in which they used PSOE offices in Congress to receive businessmen involved in the plot.
“The honor of the deputies is being questioned” and “you don’t play with that”, warned Gamarra, who also pointed out that “we must not forget” that Pedro Sánchez is also the president of the socialist group and general secretary of the PSOE.
So much so that, for the Madrid government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, if Sánchez had “the slightest dignity” he should “leave”, said his vice president, Enrique Ossorio.
parliamentary support
Ciudadanos also wanted a commission of investigation. For this reason, this Wednesday Inés Arrimadas has sent a letter to the rest of the groups requesting it, given that the orange group cannot register it alone since it does not have a fifth of the deputies of the Lower House.
Vox has already given its go-ahead to investigate in Congress to clarify responsibilities, as ERC and Compromis did yesterday, while from United We Can, the president of his parliamentary group, Jaume Asens, has not ruled out on TVE the possibility of support her.
Lobbies in Congress
The PSOE spokesman, however, does not “like” investigative commissions. His party has shown confidence that the reform of the Congress Regulations to regulate the access of interest groups (“lobbies”) to the Lower House can be reactivated.
It would be about giving more transparency to the interaction of companies and organizations with the deputies to avoid cases such as that of the mediator: this intermediary has threatened the president of the PP in the Canary Islands, Manuel Domínguez, with “taking the City Council of Los Realejos for a walk”, of which the popular leader was mayor, and the steps he claims to have made for that Consistory.
