The government is trying to stay away from the causes of corruption that surround the executive and dissociate itself from the people it trusts the most and who were involved in it. The same recipe that Pedro Sánchez applies for José Luis Ábalos … and Santos Cerdán, María Jesús Montero now applies it to designate the former president of the State Company of Industrial Participations (SEPI) who was arrested yesterday along with the former socialist activist Leire Díez as part of a secret investigation before the National Court.
The arrest of Vicente Fernández once again places the first vice-president in a compromised position, still not recovered from the scandal of the controversy over sexual harassment perpetrated by Paco Salazar. It was Montero who appointed him president of SEPI in June 2018.after winning the motion of censure, a position he left a year later, in 2019, after being indicted by the court of Seville for alleged fraud in connection with the exploitation of the Aznalcóllar mining reserve. Cause for which he was subsequently acquitted. The vice president left the position vacant for two years, until March 2021, when she named a replacement, Belén Gualda.
“I have no idea what this man was doing.”Montero declared today in the corridors of the Congress of Deputies, in an attempt to dissociate himself from the illicit practices of the one who was his right arm within the SEPI, today in the dungeons of the Tres Cantos command. The vice president distances herself and emphasizes that she has had “no contact with this man” since he left the group of companies and describes his career as something unrelated: “He was only about a year old at SEPImore than six years ago, is not part of the group of people who usually send and, therefore, I have no idea what this man was doing,” he reiterated.
Montero assures that he learned of his involvement “through the media, because it is not the first time that his name has come up.” It refers to Fernández’s links with Servinabar, the company of Antxón Alonso – also detained – and Santos Cerdán. “That’s when I knew I was collaborating, that I was working with Servinabar, But I haven’t had any WhatsApp contact, no calls, no meetings or anything. We also don’t have an environment that we share. “We don’t have any friends of friends,” he said.
The first vice-president and minister of Finance defends that her choice for this position was due to the fact that she had “a whole career to work on” for the Junta de Andalucía as auditor general, therefore “his professional profile is one that supports his appointment”. In this way, he tries to apply objective criteria and not criteria of confidence to explain his appointment. Furthermore, Montero points out that although he does not know what period is under investigation, because the cause is secret, the entire relationship with Servinabar occurs after his departure from SEPI.
“The first surprises”
In addition, she has shown herself to be open to collaborating with Justice in whatever is necessary. “We are always the first surprised and the most hurt by this behavior. of people who have been close to or in our environment, who have been absolutely outside of any legality or any ethical code”, he declared, to show once again his confidence in the fact that “go all the way”. “To the extent that it has to go and everyone who allegedly committed a certain type of crime or is involved in a certain type of conspiracy, answers to justice.”
About The Author
