J. L. R. Zapatero, the former Prime Minister, was thrown under the bus yesterday after being pointed out by his nominee, Julio Martínez, and by the owner of the airline Plus Ultra, for receiving over half a million euros to facilitate the government’s rescue—through SEPI—of the company in the spring of 2021… And for announcing it to them before it was even approved by the Council of Ministers.
In respective letters sent to the judge, both Julio Martínez Sola, president of Plus Ultra, and the nominee used by Zapatero in his businesses to collect commissions, the aforementioned Julio Martínez, point to former Prime Minister Zapatero as the man who led the operation to get the Spanish government to grant a €53-million loan to an airline with just two planes, which the Council of Ministers dubbed “strategic.” Zapatero was the one who “dictated the steps to follow.”
The airline did not meet the standards set by SEPI to be rescued: it was not profitable before the pandemic; rather, it had been operating at a loss since its inception. It was not up to date with the Spanish public administration—it owed debts to Social Security, which were deferred—and could hardly be considered strategic when it accounted for only 0.03% of flights controlled by AENA.
The collection of the 1% commission agreed upon by Zapatero for that rescue was already properly documented, even if it was done through his nominee. So the problem resurfaces now, but focusing not on Zapatero anymore, but directly on the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Because for there to be a rescue, there must be a rescuer. And the minister responsible for the sector at the time, the now-imprisoned José Luis Ábalos, has been very clear about this. He found out about the rescue in the Council of Ministers meeting itself, on March 9. What’s more, following instructions from his second-in-command, Pedro Saura, he had opposed it. According to Saura: “You should tell the president that he needs to suspend and reverse the Plus Ultra agreement, and that SEPI is out of control.”
Ábalos himself has admitted that “Zapatero pressured me to facilitate the rescue of Plus Ultra,” and that upon failing to achieve it—because “it was not a consolidated airline”—”Zapatero bypassed me”… Who could one turn to if the sector’s minister and number 2 of the PSOE refused the rescue? So, as you know, from now on Zapatero becomes—yet another one—”That person you speak to me of.”
