The third vice-president of the Government, Sara Aagesen, has made a first criticism within the Executive regarding what happened in the 2021 Plus Ultra rescue, reproaching that the airline’s plot received privileged information about the progress of its aid process before it was approved. “This should never have happened. The information had to remain focused not only on the Management Board, but also on the SEPI teams without any leaks. This should never have happened but it did, according to the information we have been able to ascertain,” she lamented in statements to Cadena Ser.
Read more The PSOE leadership accepts Zapatero’s explanations: “We maintain our support”
Aagesen thus responds to the fact that, according to the investigated Plus Ultra executives, they learned on February 26 from Julio Martínez, the intermediary of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that the concession of 53 million euros of public money was going to be approved in the following days.
According to Martínez, it was Zapatero himself who passed on the information that day, which was decisive because, as this newspaper published, the State Society of Industrial Participations (Sepi) received the last necessary report favorable to the rescue, that of legal advisor Deloitte.
Aagesen herself and other high-ranking officials who were part of the Management Board also had access that day to Deloitte’s positive report to grant the aid. Aagesen stated on Cadena Ser that they made decisions in favor of the rescues after verifying that the requirements were met. And with her criticism of the leak, she implies that she was not the one who leaked the information to the plot that it was going to be approved imminently. Asked if she maintains her confidence in Zapatero, the vice-president replied as follows: “I, mmm, this Government has said it clearly and we defend the presumption of innocence.” The minister stated that she hopes that “all individuals, including President Zapatero, will tell the truth” to clarify the facts.
Zapatero later denied on TVE that he was the one who warned of this imminent concession, but Martínez maintains that he was not the one who had the necessary contacts in the Government to access such internal information and that it was the former leader of the PSOE. According to Martínez, he merely relayed the privileged information in real time from Zapatero to the Venezuelans who controlled Plus Ultra, Camilo Ibrahim Issa and Rodolfo Reyes.
