Madrid (AFP): Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s former right-hand man goes on trial on Tuesday in a high-profile corruption case that has tainted his Socialist party and rocked the minority government.
AFP presents the key figures in a case that revolves around ex-Socialist heavyweight Jose Luis Abalos and his alleged receipt of kickbacks for health equipment contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jose Luis Abalos
A transport minister from 2018 until his sacking in 2021, Abalos was more than just a cabinet member — rather an architect of Sanchez’s rise to power and a close confidant.
He stood by Sanchez during the 2017 Socialist primaries that, against expectations, returned Sanchez to the party leadership.
Sanchez led the formation in an unsuccessful stint from 2014 to 2016, in which a general election defeat to the main conservative Popular Party (PP) kept it in opposition.
Abalos was named transport minister in 2018 after Sanchez took office following a confidence motion that ousted the graft-plagued PP.
As the powerful Socialist organisation secretary, Abalos was one of the ruling party’s most recognisable faces and most influential members.
That all changed after his involvement in a police investigation into the alleged corruption in 2024. The Socialists suspended him before his definitive expulsion last year.
Abalos gave up his independent seat in parliament in January this year while languishing in pre-trial detention. He denies the charges against him, which could see him jailed for 24 years.
Koldo Garcia
The significant role Abalos’s former adviser is accused of playing has given his name to the so-called “Koldo affair”.
A once obscure figure, the tall, burly Garcia used to wield axes in traditional Basque wood-cutting exhibitions before becoming Abalos’s closest associate at the transport ministry.
The ex-security guard had served as a Socialist local councillor in the northern Navarre region before working for Abalos.
Like Abalos, Garcia developed close ties to Sanchez and accompanied him during the 2017 Socialist primaries. As they criss-crossed Spain by car, their political enemies dubbed them “the Peugeot gang”.
The other passenger was Santos Cerdan, Abalos’s successor as Socialist organisation secretary — and he too is now under investigation for alleged corruption.
Garcia, who faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted, denies being the key intermediary in the illegal payment of commissions and rigging of contracts alongside Abalos.
Victor de Aldama
Businessman Victor de Aldama has admitted shady dealings with Abalos and Garcia to capture contracts and gain commercial advantages via the payment of kickbacks.
Prosecutors are seeking seven years in prison for Aldama, a former president of third-division football club Zamora.
In 2024, he told the press that the network of corruption permeated the Socialists up to Sanchez himself.
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