Spain’s parliament speaker refuses to step down amid corruption probe

Spanish parliament speaker Francina Armengol, a member of the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D), on Tuesday rejected calls from the right-wing opposition for her resignation.

The speaker of the country’s lower house of parliament and former head of the regional government of the Balearic Islands has been implicated in an alleged corruption scheme involving kickbacks on the purchase of face masks during the pandemic, the so-called “Koldo case”.

“I am not under investigation, neither I nor anyone in my government, and we are not in the judicial file” that is looking into whether there were irregularities in a case that dates back to when she was president of the Balearic Islands region before taking on her current role, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s PSOE has come under fire from the conservative opposition Partido Popular (EPP) after Spain’s National Court opened an investigation last week into a scheme allegedly involving Koldo García, an advisor to former socialist transport minister José Luis Abalos.

García is accused of receiving commissions allegedly paid to obtain public contracts for selling face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Armengol is also implicated in the investigation, the regional daily Diario de Mallorca reported.

‘Victim not accomplice’

Armengol appeared before the media in Madrid a day after the PP formally asked her to resign.

“Twenty people have been arrested and none from the Balearic Islands. In any case, my government would be a victim, not an accomplice or collaborator,” she said of the accusations made by the conservatives, who believe she was an “alleged necessary collaborator of the plan”.

The regional government of the Balearic Islands, which she led for eight years, “legally purchased” the necessary equipment to face the COVID-19 pandemic, she insisted on Tuesday.

Commission of inquiry

On Tuesday, the Bureau of the Parliament, the chamber’s governing body, gave the green light to a request by the PSOE to set up a commission to investigate the purchase of medical and health equipment by public administrations across the country during the pandemic, El País reports.

The PP abstained in protest because Armengol took part in the vote.

“She cannot vote on a commission that would investigate her,” a spokesman said.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) opened its investigation after receiving a complaint from a private individual about the purchase of health equipment worth around €12 million in the Canary Islands and €3.7 million in the Balearic Islands.

In the case of the Canary Islands, the regional government was headed at the time by the PSOE’s Ángel Víctor Torres, now Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory.

The EPPO investigates crimes against the EU’s financial interests, in this case misappropriation of public funds, fraud and influence peddling.

According to an ongoing judicial investigation in Spain, the regional government of the Balearic Islands certified in 2020 that a company had “satisfactorily” carried out the supply of masks contracted for €3.7 million, but three years later claimed money for having received material of lower quality than agreed.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)