EPP calls for the EU probe about the leaked news of the Spanish PM in the airline's lifeguard scandal

The European People's Party (EPP) has asked the European Commission to start an investigation of the possible abuse of EU recovery funds after the Koviden after a bomb leaf that connects the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez with a controversy rescue of Air Europe with 475 million euros.

On Thursday the Secretary General of Epp Dolors Montserrat formally requested That the Commission is examining whether the Spanish government violated the EU principles for good government, transparency and impartiality, as anchored in fundamental rights in the EU Charter.

The demand is after leaked WhatsApp messages that were published by published El Mundo, Sánchez allegedly showed Beggoña Gómez -, which is currently being examined for corruption and influence of the peddling, just a few days after a meeting between the son of the airline, Javier Hidalgo, with former ministers and the wife of the Prime Minister.

In the middle of continuous corruption investigations in which socialist civil servants were involved, Montserrat came to the conclusion that the government had violated the rights of good administration, impartiality and transparency.

“These revelations raise serious questions,” said Montserrat in a statement. “We call for transparency and accountability so that no government can use public funds as an instrument to serve your own interests.”

Wider European scandal?

One of the leaked talks concerns Nadia Calviño, the former Minister of Economics and now President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is supposedly discussed about the execution of the rescue act: a detail that Montserrat said gives the scandal of other European implications.

“The participation of Calviño, which is now heading the EIB, gives this matter a European dimension and undermines confidence in our institutions,” she added.

The controversy focuses on the decision of the Spanish government in 2020 to approve a rescue package of 475 million euros for Air Europe, which was about to collapse when the Covid 19 pandemic brought the global journey to standstill.

The leaked messages show that Sánchez is debating the services of the deal and even forwards a message from a “close friend”, who is now exposed to the then transport minister José Luis Ábalos in favor of the rescue act in a separate corruption scandal in the amount of 50 million euros.

2020 rescue back in the spotlight

“I believe that Air Europe saved and does not have to be placed in the hands of Iberia (a subsidiary of the British company IAG),” Sánchez supposedly wrote. “In any case, it is an operation that we have to meditate and see how you can approach it.”

The scandal has dominated Spanish headlines, whereby the opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo from the popular party demands early elections.

So far, government officials have defended the legality of the transaction.

“There is no indication that irregularities in relation to Air Europe have been celebrated irregularly. All technical reports indicate good management that was carried out,” the first Vice President María Jesús Mondero told the Congress on Wednesday.

(AW)