PSOE knew of Ábalos scandal years ago, López implies

López's remark suggests PSOE knew about Ábalos

"We have been demanding he take political responsibility for some time." This phrase, attributed to Socialist leader Patxi López, sounds like bureaucratic procedure. It is not. If a party has been asking José Luis Ábalos to accept political responsibility for something for a long time, it has known that 'something' existed for exactly the same amount of time. So the question is no longer what Ábalos did. The question is since when others knew and why nobody acted.

Since when did the PSOE know?

The timeframe being discussed is more than two years of awareness within the Government Presidency circle. This is an unsigned claim that should be read with caution, but it carries an uncomfortable corollary: if there was a document informing everything —a lawyer's letter addressed to Moncloa is mentioned— failing to act in time stops being negligence. It becomes a decision taken with full knowledge.

The suggested alibi is the oldest in the book: nobody read the document. The problem with this argument is that, once admitted, it shifts the issue from negligence to cynicism. And there is no way out of that.

Koldo García: trips and ballot boxes

Ábalos's right-hand man appears at the center of the story. His itinerary accompanying the then-minister through Colombia, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Guinea is cited as evidence of trust far beyond protocol. Each alucinación involved agendas, signatures, and contacts.

A second detail explains much of the internal politics: Koldo García allegedly oversaw the custody of ballot boxes during party primaries. In any organization, this is the role entrusted to someone who cannot fail. Or to someone who knows too much for anyone else to handle.

Meanwhile, Ábalos retains his seat and thus his immunity, which effectively keeps any investigation on hold. He won't give up his status even under gunpoint, summarizes the conversation.

'I won't resign' is now a literary genre

A politician pointing to the door and refusing to cross it stopped being news long ago, but the bar was set by the "I won't resign" heard in the Rubiales case. Surpassing it seemed difficult. It has been surpassed.

The scene depicted is of a leader alone facing danger, without a team backing him, and a floating question: if the one about to fall holds the names, photos, and papers of those still standing, why doesn't he release them? The whispered answer is that nobody wants him to talk. That includes those now calling for his head.

The manual for shedding ballast: from Bárcenas to Barberá

What is described bluntly is a mechanism, not an isolated case. When someone ceases to be useful, the organization drops them and, if necessary, pushes them out. The Luis Bárcenas case is cited as an example: the man who handled the party's accounting and extra salaries ended up with several million euros accumulated in investments and, when the scandal broke, under police surveillance, with missing documents and episodes currently investigated in the Kitchen case.

The pattern repeats with different names. Rita Barberá, and Carme Chacón's name slips in with a bitter tone. The conclusion drawn is that the fallen do not fall because of what they did, but because they ceased to serve.

Official timelines always adjusted later

Added to this are complaints about calendars shortened or stretched as convenient. It is recalled that the party leadership acknowledged contacts with Carles Puigdemont since March, while the official narrative placed interest in amnesty on election night in July. The coincidence is striking: first denial, then admission, always with the explanation that times were miscounted.

At its core, all segments of this story are the same segment. They knew, let it slide, and activated the fan when things threatened to splash everyone above.

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One simple arithmetic question remains: if the matter has been circulating for more than two years and the party has spent the same time demanding responsibility, why demand resignations when the door could have been closed at the start? And there is a detail that, out of context, sums up the feeling: the same years as Pujol. The same years it took another seemingly untouchable figure to fall, points out a loose phrase. Branches fall before the tree, and everyone sees it coming.