A government against the strings. The involvement of the ‘number three’ of the PSOE in the corruption scandal for which awards were allegedly stored in exchange for illegal commissions places Pedro Sánchez at the most delicate time of his presidency. Although Santos Cerdán maintained in public and private until the last moment he never participated in criminal acts, the report of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, whose content advanced Eldiario.es, exposed him as one of the alleged members of the corrupt plot. And from there everything happened. In the early afternoon of Thursday, Cerdán resigned pushed by Sánchez. And the president later appeared at the headquarters of his party to “apologize” to citizens and discard the hypothesis of an electoral advance.
“Until this morning I was convinced of the integrity of Santos Cerdán. But indications have appeared and are serious, very serious. That is why I want to apologize to the citizen The breast of his party. “Electoral call will not be until 2027 because this does not go from me or the PSOE. This goes from a political project that is doing good things for our country,” he settled.
The chief of the Executive thus tried to return the vital constants to the government and his party, paralyzed since Wednesday night and with the breath contained waiting for answers. “Santos is not like Ábalos, it is incomparable, it is much worse. This is a tear that will be difficult to recover because in Santos we have trusted all this time, because this happens with him to the parties of the party and as a person of the president’s maximum confidence. And because this, in addition, throws by land the argument of a simple black sheep,” admitted a member of the Executive after knowing the report.
This sense of uncontrolled fire spread rapidly by Congress between the bulk of PSOE parliamentary partners and between the socialist ranks themselves, where everyone agrees to point out the “deep disappointment” with its secretary of organization and the political implications of this case. Some leaders of weight and prominent ministers even pointed to the need “of a deep government crisis”, in addition to a renewal of the party’s dome, to make a legislature already crossed by a serious corruption scandal, just the leitmotif of the landing of Pedro Sánchez in La Moncloa after the motion of censure that evicted the PP for the ‘Gürtel case’.
But the president rejected any type of parallelism and renewed his commitment to “a democratic regeneration project” that, he says, remains in force. “There is no zero corruption, but zero tolerance does when it occurs. There are political organizations that make and react and there are political organizations that protect and hide. I have many defects, but I have always been committed to the fight against corruption. It causes me a huge outrage and a deep sadness to see that a whole political project, in which they trust and on which millions of people depend, it can be affected by the behavior of a few. It is great, the answer will always be blunt.
Discarded flat the dissolution of the Courts and even the demanded government crisis between its own ranks, Sánchez just announced a renewal of the PSOE direction and an “external audit” that sheds light on whether, for example, Cerdán and Ábalos could contribute to their alleged illegal activity to a hypothetical irregular financing of the party. For now, the appointment set in the calendar is on July 5, date of the Federal Committee in which changes in the socialist dome will be formalized, including the substitute or substitute for Cerdán.
“Cold blood” of Cerdán
As the details of the UCO report that place Cerdán in the very core of the corrupt plot, one of the most widespread sensations in the PSOE during the day was that of the impact by the “cold blood” of their secretary of Organization. “He has been telling us for two years that he knew nothing. Last night he called the president and gave him his word that he had never participated in any illegal activity and that that was not going to be able to support any investigation. And he has maintained that coldness until the last moment. The truth is that it is shocking,” he openly admitted another high position of the government consulted by this newspaper.
The succession of the events since Eldiario.es published on Wednesday night that the UCO report placed Cerdán in an unsustainable situation accredits that attitude of flight forward. That same Wednesday night, a PSOE still commanded by Cerdán launched a statement in which he rejected the accusations flat. “Santos Cerdán has not participated, much less influenced, in public works awards. He has never charged a commission for it.”
As Eldiario.es of people close to the president has been able to know, that was transferred by telephone to Pedro Sánchez after the information advanced by this newspaper. Already on Thursday morning Cerdán went to Congress and attended to the questions of the press to stay in his position. “I am very calm, because I have not committed any illegality. I am completely sure that this report will not imply me on any mistress. When we know it, I will give the explanations and summon a press conference.”
But in La Moncloa there was already a decision made and that press conference never occurred. At the exit of Congress, the former Secretary of Organization went to his office at the PSOE headquarters and met with part of his team to “analyze the report”. He did not have much time to do it because he was summoned to the Páncloa Palace where, according to the president himself, he was forced to his resignation.
In a letter sent by the PSOE, Santos Cerdán announced his resignation as secretary of Organization and the delivery of his deputy minutes. “In defense of this party that this country owes so much, and of this government, I have decided to present the resignation of all my positions. I will also deliver my deputy act. I hope to dedicate myself exclusively to my defense, and offer all the relevant explanations to demonstrate that, as I have been pointing out these days, I have never committed an illegality, nor have I been complicit in any.”
On the basis of the recordings and messages seized, the UCO report indicates Santos Cerdán as in charge of “managing the amount and payments” of commissions that would have benefited Ábalos and Koldo García. Only by the construction company Actiona, Ábalos and Koldo García would have received 620,000 euros “managed” by the ‘number three’ of the PSOE.
Among the elements used by researchers to aim at the involvement of the already ‘socialist three socialist includes five conversations between Santos Cerdán, Koldo García and Ábalos that indicate the perception of funds and the distribution in exchange for public works awards. In one of those conversations between Cerdán and Koldo García, held in 2021, they allude to some works in Murcia and the payment of 550,000 euros. “550 and from there we discount. Seville I will say that they put it in writing and I give it to you,” says Cerdán. The Civil Guard explains that Koldo García recorded Cerdán and Ábalos up to five times between 2019 and 2023.
The judge believes that based on this investigation there are sufficient indications to maintain that Santos Cerdán, like José Luis Ábalos, could incur crimes of criminal organization and bribery. A maximum level scandal in the party that reached the Moncloa to banish the scandals of the PP and now leaves the government to the edge of the abyss.
Source: www.eldiario.es
