The troubles that justice can still give to the PP

Who would think that with the sentences that have declared box b of the PP accredited, the judicial proceedings for corruption that affected the party that he presides over were ending Pablo Casado you will soon get out of your mistake. November 16 the trial of another prominent piece of the ‘Gürtel plot’, that of the contracting of Francisco Correa’s framework in the Madrid town of Boadilla del Monte. Although it is from one of the municipalities with the highest per capita income in Spain, the figures that the court will hear will not reach those of the first period of the ‘Gürtel’, but there is a circumstance that can be even more damaging for the PP : almost half of the defendants have agreed with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and they acknowledge the acts of which they are accused in exchange for a reduction of the sentence.

The existence of repentants in the ‘Gürtel’ is not new and has been increasing as the number of convictions has grown. In the trial of the first period, the businessmen, with whom Anti-Corruption initiated the interrogations, was added Correa, who surprised everyone by admitting that he charged commissions from those who wanted to be awarded the ministries of Environment and Development, for which He interceded before the ex-treasurer of the PP Alvaro Lapuerta, now deceased, and his successor, Luis Barcenas.

After 12 years

It cost more to Correa’s right-hand man, Pablo Crespo. No less than 12 years since the investigations began. Until last April he did not admit the crimes attributed to him by Anticorruption in Boadilla del Monte for the collection of commissions, which in a park amounted to 3% or 4% of the value of the award, as he himself confesses in one of his writings.

When the proximity of the trial became imminent, it was the turn of the former mayor of Boadilla Arturo González Panero, alias ‘El Albondiguilla “, which faces an Anti-Corruption petition 40 years and seven months in jail, which trusts is reduced. In the text in which he announces his willingness to collaborate, he admits that during his time as mayor he consented to “the favorable treatment of Grupo Correa” in exchange for commissions that, according to Anti-Corruption, would amount to 1.8 million euros.

In this trial, the PP will once again sit on the defendant’s bench as profit-sharing participant for, allegedly, having benefited in an amount of 204,198 euros between 2001 and 2009 with the irregularities now admitted by González Panero. When Boadilla’s trial ends, two other pieces of the ‘Gürtel’ will still remain to be judged: that of the contracts signed with the Madrid city council of Arganda del Rey and the one referring to tax crimes.

And what about financing?

Related news

The views of the ‘Gürtel’ have also served to prove the illegal party funding. That of the Valencian PP has already been declared proven by the National Court, while that of the Madrid PP is still under investigation.

However, Anti-Corruption has announced that it does not consider it necessary to extend it beyond January 29, 2022, taking into account that the judge opened another piece with the documentation delivered by another repentant, the former mayor of Majadahonda Guillermo Ortega, in relation to the use of the Puerta de Toledo market to collect commissions. By then, the Public Prosecutor’s Office will have to clarify against who is directing his accusation and, specifically, if the former Madrid president Hope Aguirre accompanies his subordinates on the bench Francisco Granados e Ignacio Gonzalez, who was the one who replaced her as head of the Madrid presidency.