The name of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero immediately appeared linked to the rescue of the airline Plus Ultra in a mysterious but relentless way back in 2021. The former Prime Minister, apparently unaware at the time of any operation of this nature and officially involved in his mediation work with Venezuela, did not formally appear anywhere. However, his possible intervention strikingly surfaced in numerous conversations with sources close to the Government or the aviation sector, who pointed to him as the great facilitator of that unknown company.
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It was inconceivable that Plus Ultra was considered strategic by the Sánchez Government in exchange for 53 million public funds without a powerful sponsor intervening, and surprisingly, the identity of that sponsor was clearly identified by the most diverse interlocutors.
To verify whether Zapatero’s intervention was an urban legend or had some truth, this newspaper asked the president of Plus Ultra directly during the government decision: “Has Plus Ultra hired any advisor or intermediary to obtain the Spanish Government’s rescue? Have you had any contact with the former Spanish president on this matter to help you secure the rescue?”
The response of Fernando García Manso in an interview published in April 2021 was blunt: “All the procedures have been done directly with SEPI, following the normal channels and promptly providing all the information requested […] Regarding whether there have been contacts with Zapatero, no. We do not know him personally nor has there been any contact with him.”
The rumor gained real credibility for the first time from José Luis Ábalos himself, Minister of Transport during the aid. He revealed to this newspaper that he was the first surprised to see a million-euro loan to Plus Ultra in the Council of Ministers and that he asked for explanations, first from Pedro Sánchez, and then from his right hand in the ministry, Pedro Saura, who, according to him, explained that it had been a direct demand from the former PSOE leader.
The former Secretary of State denied that conversation ever took place and kept the rumor at bay. Ábalos’s word against Saura’s. But the tide kept rising, and we had lunch at that time, in autumn 2024, with the Plus Ultra leadership at the L’Albufera restaurant in La Moraleja. Sitting face to face with Julio Martínez Sola, the company’s president, and its top executive, Roberto Roselli, Carlos Segovia and I put on the table that we already had a key testimony, that of the former right hand of the Prime Minister, who pointed to Zapatero as the hand that rocked the cradle. We asked the question in different ways to unravel the mystery, but there was no way. “It’s all a hoax, we neither know Zapatero nor have we resorted to him for anything, directly or indirectly, and all this responds to internal wars within the Government,” concluded those who barely three years earlier celebrated the rescue with oysters and champagne in a neighboring establishment, sending images of the seafood feast to Zapatero’s circle.
After the lie, they showed us the airline’s offices to verify on site not only that the former president was not there but that it was real and in very good health.
And there the rumor remained, parked among denials, with the solitary testimony of Ábalos, until last December when the Police proceeded to arrest Julito Martínez, a personal friend of the former socialist leader. EL MUNDO then uncovered that he had diverted a good part of what Plus Ultra had paid him for “global advisory services.” The amount, close to half a million, could correspond to a commission for the key management with the Government.
But the real turning point came last February, when we revealed the existence of a contract that guaranteed Julito a 1% commission if he managed to save the airline from disappearance. Martínez Sola dodged by saying he did not remember anything. Julito downgraded it to the category of a draft that was never executed and dissociated Zapatero from it, and together they pushed the ball forward. But what capacity did a businessman from Elda have to achieve such a management? Zapatero denied his involvement in all this and maintains his position amid the storm of denunciations.
The Aldama effect has accelerated events. The informers, true to their style, sent reassuring messages to Zapatero a few hours ago while plotting the blow. Demonstrating, among them, that the rumor, as José María García repeatedly said, in Spain is always the prelude to the news.
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