Businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, friend of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and one of the main suspects in the Plus Ultra case, testifies before the judge this Tuesday after implicating the former president in the aid that the Government granted to the airline in 2021, and confirming the receipt of 1% of it. Considered by investigators as the “main lieutenant and visible figure” of the plot, Martínez appears before the National Court with the commitment to “collaborate and contribute to clarifying the facts,” according to the document he submitted less than 24 hours earlier to the court. The Deputy Secretary of Institutional Regeneration, Cuca Gamarra, has accused the Government of influence peddling. “We are no longer talking about assessments or assumptions, we are talking about a criminal procedure, we are talking about the National Court, we are presumably talking about a 1% commission for a bailout to an airline that no one knew in Spain,” she said on RNE.
Read more The third heat wave of the summer begins, with the worst in the east and south of the Peninsula
EL PAÍS offers the latest political news free of charge. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe.
Ministers Saiz, Díaz, Hereu and García will appear after the Council of Ministers
Spokeswoman Minister Elma Saiz will appear this Tuesday, starting at 12:30, alongside the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu; and the Minister of Health, Mónica García, at the press conference following the Council of Ministers.
The PP points to the Government for influence peddling: “We are no longer talking about assessments or assumptions”
The Deputy Secretary of Institutional Regeneration, Cuca Gamarra, has evaluated the moves of Julio Martínez Martínez, administrator of Análisis Relevante; and Julio Martínez Sola and Roberto Roselli, president and current CEO of the airline Plus Ultra; who claim that former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero mediated in the airline’s bailout. “We are no longer talking about assessments or assumptions, we are talking about a criminal procedure, we are talking about the National Court, we are presumably talking about a 1% commission so that a bailout was given to an airline that none of us knew in Spain because none of us had flown on it, which was curiously rescued by Pedro Sánchez’s Government and today there are indications, but there will even be self-incriminations,” Gamarra said in an interview on RNE where she pointed to the Government for influence peddling in this alleged operation. “We are presumably talking about a crime of influence peddling, where obviously there will be not only indications but also statements and confessions. And the question is, influence peddling, over whom? Because this also appeals to the Government. We are talking about a bailout, a bailout that from the beginning no Spaniard understood and that we are now beginning to understand, but of course, understanding it from the scope of conduct that is obviously outside the scope of legality, right?” added the popular leader.
Tellado, on the ‘Plus Ultra case’: “They have all lied to us”
The Secretary General of the PP, Miguel Tellado, denounced “lies” this Tuesday in the Plus Ultra case. “Julio Martínez and those from Plus Ultra confess that Zapatero received a 1% commission for the bailout. They not only complicate Zapatero’s judicial future, but also Sánchez’s and his Government’s. They have all lied,” lamented Tellado in a message posted on X.
These statements come while businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, friend of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and one of the main suspects in the case, is at the National Court to testify before the judge after implicating the former president in the aid that the Government granted to the airline in 2021, and confirming the receipt of 1% of it.
The businessman friend of Zapatero arrives at the National Court to testify in the ‘Plus Ultra case’
Businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, friend of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and one of the main suspects in the Plus Ultra case, arrived this Tuesday at the National Court to testify before the judge after implicating the former president in the aid that the Government granted to the airline in 2021, and confirming the receipt of 1% of it.
‘PLUS ULTRA CASE’
Rewarded whistleblowing announced
The documents submitted by Julio Martínez Sola, president of the company Plus Ultra, and Julio Martínez Martínez, owner of the web of companies that made payments to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero investigated in the instruction section no. 2 of the Central Court of First Instance of the National Court, prior to their statements as defendants, represent a very serious impact right at the heart of the defense of the latter.
Read more Judge Raquel Rodríguez has 3,751 cases: this is the new childhood and adolescence court of Madrid
You can read the full analysis here
‘ZAPATERO CASE’
Zapatero’s judicial horizon hangs on Julio Martínez’s testimony before the judge after his decision to “collaborate”
The criminal future of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has a proper name. Businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, administrator of the consultancy that paid the former Prime Minister for five years, testifies this Tuesday before the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama, after contradicting in writing the version Zapatero gave before the instructor, in which he distanced himself from the public bailout of the airline Plus Ultra approved by the Council of Ministers in 2021. “I have not exerted any influence on the bailout of Plus Ultra […] that is an unquestionable truth,” the former president maintained. In a document in which the businessman shows his willingness to “collaborate,” Martínez Martínez assures that the former socialist leader was the one “who set the steps to follow” in that operation. The president of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola, has also addressed the instructor to collaborate and offer a version that fits with that of the commission agent.
You can read the full information here
Plus Ultra Case
Plus Ultra places the first contact with Zapatero almost a year before the airline bailout
The airline Plus Ultra, rescued with public money during the Covid-19 crisis, requested the intermediation of businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, administrator of the firm Análisis Relevante, and his close friend the former Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to request and accelerate the aid of 53 million that was granted by the Council of Ministers on March 9, 2021. This is stated by the president of the airline, Julio Martínez Sola, in a document sent to the Instruction Section of the Central Court of First Instance (which handles cases that can later be judged by the National Court) as a sign of collaboration with justice in the investigation of the controversial loan and the participation in the procedures of the socialist leader.
You can read the full information here
‘ZAPATERO CASE’
The ‘Aldama route’ makes its way in the ‘Zapatero case’: businessmen dismantle the former president’s defense
Businessmen Julio Martínez Martínez, administrator of Análisis Relevante, and Julio Martínez Sola and Roberto Roselli, president and current CEO of the airline Plus Ultra, began this Monday to follow the Aldama route, the path that led the main commission agent of the Koldo case to benefit from a large sentence reduction after self-incriminating and detailing his dealings with former minister José Luis Ábalos and advisor Koldo García to benefit from rigged public contracts. Martínez Martínez, Martínez Sola and Roselli have submitted to the National Court respective documents in which they offer to collaborate in the investigation opened for possible irregularities in the 53 million euro bailout that the Government granted to the airline during the covid-19 pandemic and directly point to former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, charged in this case.
You can read the full information here
Good morning. We start the live narration of the latest political news, this Tuesday, July 21.
Businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, friend of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and one of the main suspects in the Plus Ultra case, testifies today before the judge after implicating the former head of government in the aid that the Executive granted to the airline in 2021, and confirming the receipt of 1% of it.
On the other hand, the Council of Ministers again approves this Tuesday the stability path until 2029, which will be voted again on Thursday in the plenary of the Congress, where so far nothing predicts a different result than the rejection it already received this week.
King Felipe VI, for his part, will receive today at 11:30 a.m. in audience the president of the Junta of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, after having been sworn into office in the regional Parliament resulting from the regional elections of May 17.
Read more When internet knowledge is no longer enough: AI sets its sights on second-hand bookstores
