The Plus Ultra case has shaken Spanish politics this week after the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was charged with influence peddling and document falsification. On Wednesday, Pedro Sánchez ruled out an early election in a tense control session in which the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded his resignation and shifted the pressure of a possible motion of no confidence to the Government’s partners. These have been modulating their discourse as the details of the order became known. The leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, admitted that “it doesn’t look good,” while the spokesperson for ERC, Gabriel Rufián, acknowledged having been wrong to defend Zapatero “out of affection” before reading it. The Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, called for “time and calm” so that the case “is clarified.” In this context, Rufián also announced his willingness to lead a new left-wing space ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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The Catalan Government acknowledges that Zapatero’s charge “fell like a bomb”
The conseller of the Presidency of the Government of Catalonia, Albert Dalmau, acknowledged this Thursday that the charge against former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the Plus Ultra airline case “fell like a bomb,” although he asked to respect the presumption of innocence.
“I want to trust in the presumption of innocence, in justice, and that the appropriate explanations can be given,” Dalmau said in statements to SER Catalunya. In his opinion, this charge “has an important emotional impact” since Zapatero was the president who “approved same-sex marriage, withdrew troops from Iraq,” and promoted the dependency law. (Efe)
Albares maintains that Spain’s international image remains “very solid” after Zapatero’s charge
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured this Thursday that Spain’s international image remains “very solid” at this time, after the charge against former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became known.
“Everyone recognizes us for a foreign policy based on humanist values that is coherent, that defends the same principles of respect for international law, the pursuit of peace, not accepting war as an instrument of foreign policy in all scenarios, whether in Ukraine, the Middle East, or anywhere else. Also for our economy, which currently leads growth in Europe and is one of the main growing economies in the world. Also for that very clear stance we have regarding the equal dignity of all human beings, including migrants,” he said in an interview on La1.
‘PLUS ULTRA CASE’
Video | Pandemic bailouts: which companies received aid and how they were executed
Javier Magariño, Infrastructure and Transport reporter for Cinco Días, explains the keys to the Spanish Government’s aid to airlines during the tourism crisis caused by covid-19.
You can watch the full video here
‘PLUS ULTRA CASE’
A company with heavy losses paid more than half a million euros to the company of Zapatero’s daughters
Read more Albares assures that the Spaniards of the flotilla detained in Israel will be returned today
The investigation of the Plus Ultra case places Inteligencia Prospectiva SL, a Madrid-based company with only one employee, as a key piece in the alleged influence peddling network for which former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been charged. Its millionaire money flows despite its lack of activity, as well as the payment of more than half a million euros to Whathefav SL, the company of the two daughters of the former PSOE leader, led the agents of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police to raid its headquarters on Madrid’s Paseo de La Habana this Tuesday. Its administrators are the Venezuelan brothers Domingo Arnaldo and Guillermo Alfredo Amaro Chacón, who appear as owners of another half dozen companies in Spain and are considered well connected with the Caracas regime. In the order authorizing the raid, the National Court judge José Luis Calama describes Inteligencia Prospectiva as “a company lacking real activity” ―highlighting that its income over its five years of existence is nil or less than 35,000 euros― and whose real purpose is allegedly “to introduce funds into Spain from abroad and channel them to companies linked to the organized network led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.” The person who answers the company’s phone refused to speak to this newspaper to give their version of these accusations. This newspaper has contacted the company to obtain its version of these accusations, without success.
You can read the full information here
opinion
From 15-M to the charged Zapatero
Perhaps Pedro Sánchez has only been a political mirage. The one of thinking that Spain could avoid more alleged corruption cases around a Government. The one of believing that the PSOE had overcome the existential crisis that 2011 left in the party. From the 15-M that took place when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was in power, to the defeat in Andalusia last Sunday, there is a difference of more than 15 years: we are also witnessing the end of a political cycle in the Spanish left, which also coincides with the investigation of the former socialist president.
You can read the full opinion here
CONGRESS OF DEPUTIES
PNV and Junts leave the legislature pending Zapatero’s judicial statement
It is starting to smell like grisly gas in Congress. Most of the Government’s partners are beginning to modulate their support after learning the details of the judicial order that charged former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. There is discomfort and concern about the legislature among parties and spokespeople who declare their fervor for Zapatero but already show some doubts. The result of the former president’s judicial appearance scheduled for June 2 will be decisive, also for the PP to clarify its plans to try to force Pedro Sánchez’s end at La Moncloa. The PNV remains cautious but with “tense calm” and monitors events “day by day.” Junts notes in every plenary session its displeasure because “governing is done behind the Parliament’s back” with a Cabinet that has long lost its majority.
You can read the full information here
Plus Ultra Case
Entrepreneur Julio Martínez reactivated three key companies in the Plus Ultra plot during the bailout months
The entrepreneur Julio Martínez Martínez, investigated by the National Court as one of the key actors in the plot that allegedly profited from the public bailout of Plus Ultra and in which former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is involved, reactivated several companies he owned during the key months of the granting of the 53 million euro loan that ensured the airline’s survival. Companies that, according to the judicial order signed by Judge José Luis Calama, played a “central” role in channeling the funds that the main defendants, including Zapatero, allegedly received, to whom the alleged crime of influence peddling is attributed. He is assigned a role of “strategic leadership” in the structure created to influence authorities in obtaining the bailout.
You can read the full information here
‘PLUS ULTRA CASE’
The strategy of entrepreneur Julio Martínez will mark Zapatero’s judicial future
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero spent Wednesday morning at his home, meeting with his lawyer, after the previous day’s episode when he had to open the door to agents of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police who appeared there to hand him the order from National Court judge José Luis Calama, who links him to a network dedicated to influence peddling of which he was the alleged leader. The former Prime Minister is already preparing his next statement scheduled for June 2 at nine in the morning, but all those charged in the Plus Ultra case are aware that a complex investigation has begun in which any defection by one of them, as in all corruption cases, can drag the others into a dark judicial horizon. Zapatero’s future does not depend only on himself; it is inextricably linked to that of the owner of the consulting firm Análisis Relevante, whose payments he must justify. The strategy of the Alicante entrepreneur Julio Martínez Martínez, a friend since he left La Moncloa in 2011 and business partner at least since 2020 until his arrest last December, will directly affect the heart of the case.
You can read the full information here
Good morning. We start the live narration of the latest political news, this Thursday, May 21. The parties are closely following the developments in the investigation of the Plus Ultra case, after the support of the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, for former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero following his charge.
