💣 This Week in Spain: Sh*t Hits the Fan

Aldama spills the beans, the prime time war heats up and a royal portrait.

Nov 28, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | November 28, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #80

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🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: It’s a very, very bad week for PM Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE as corruption scandals, accusations of backstabbing and bonkers revelations have exploded all at once, forcing the party leadership into OMG damage control.

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Shit, meet fan

Victor de Aldama’s wild revelations before the National Court have the PSOE scrambling

Remember the arrest of the burglars in the Watergate scandal, the first link in the chain that brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon? Now, we’re not saying that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is like Nixon, or that he committed any criminal acts, but the recent testimony of Víctor de Aldama could be, like the arrest of the burglars, the first link in the chain…⛓️

Victor…who? Good point. Let’s catch you up. The Guardia Civil arrested Koldo García, an advisor to former Public Works Minister José Luis Ábalos, earlier this year for allegedly taking bribes for millions in COVID-era surgical mask sales. In the next chapter, Víctor de Aldama, a Koldo associate, was accused of helping secure licenses that allowed his network to buy fuel without VAT and then resell it at full price, pocketing the difference. He allegedly defrauded the Spanish taxman of €182m (!!!) and had someone drop a €90,000 cash payoff at PSOE HQ as part of it. Oh, and then a photo (and video!) came out of Sánchez with Aldama. Anyway, Aldama was detained in October. Cue foreboding music. 🎶
Now sing like a canary. In a bid to secure his release from prison, Aldama voluntarily testified to a judge last Thursday for two-and-a-half hours. And OH MY GOD did he sing like a canary about crimes big and small allegedly committed by PSOE bigwigs (see video above).
- If even half of what he said was true—and we’re talking not just ‘Crimes with Koldo and Ábalos’, but also envelopes of cash for government officials and an attempted dinner meeting between PM Sánchez and a Venezuelan pol on a U.S. sanctions list—there’s going to be some serious hell to pay.
So without further ado…let’s get into it!

ACT I: Caso Koldo. The first act of Aldama’s testimony was what you might expect—as in it dealt with the crimes he was accused of committing with Koldo and Ábalos—except it was super juicy!

You say “bribes,” I say “commissions.” Aldama testified that he delivered “commissions” directly and indirectly to Koldo and Ábalos for public service contracts (like for antigen tests and masks during COVID) under investigation.
€10,000 a month. That’s how much he said was delivered to Koldo. And once, Aldama said, Koldo split the money with Ábalos in front of him. 🤑 On three occasions, he said, money was delivered to Koldo’s brother Joseba in the Dominican Republic.
That money adds up! According to Aldama, Ábalos received a total of some €650,000 in “commissions”, while Koldo got about €300,000. 💰 With these kickbacks, Koldo is accused of buying beachfront real estate (that’s how people get caught, Koldo!). And supposedly, Ábalos wanted €2m, but Aldama said he couldn’t make that work (greed gets ya, José Luis!)
But it gets better! Aldama also says he bought a motorcycle for Koldo, a car for his wife, and artificial insemination treatments for them (it’s true, Koldo: children are a gift 👶). And for Ábalos? A luxury apartment rental for his girlfriend Jésica.

Again, if even half of this is true… But now on to the next part. Because that was just the beginning.

ACT II: Aldama’s alleged relationship with Sánchez and payoffs to PSOE bigwigs.

Never met the guy v. close friends. After a 2019 photo of Sánchez with Aldama surfaced, the PM claimed he really didn’t know the guy, saying he takes photos with many people at rallies. But in his testimony, Aldama begged to differ, saying that not only did he and Sánchez know each other and talk on multiple occasions but also that the PM was well aware of his, ahem, “activities” (including his involvement in negotiating a €475 million aid package for Air Europa).
Vague denial and Sopranos comeback. Sánchez replied that everything Aldama said was “false” and “quite a story”, and that Aldama would have to prove all of his allegations. Not to be outdone, Aldama—who clearly has been catching up on The Sopranos—took a moment while leaving prison to “warn” Sánchez, “He shouldn’t worry, he’ll have proof of everything that’s been said.”

Then Aldama went after other PSOE leaders with juicy details.

Money for the underbosses. Aldama then dropped a few bombs: He claimed that he gave cash payoffs to Santos Cerdán, the PSOE’s No. 3 party official, along with Carlos Moreno (chief of staff for First Deputy Prime Minister María Jesús Montero) and Ángel Victor Torres (the Minister of Territorial Policy), in exchange for a favor to a company (specifically, a deferral from the Treasury Ministry). Moreno got €25,000, Cerdán got €15,000 and Torres asked for €50,000 but Aldama refused to pay (all allegedly, of course).
Old school! Aldama said payments were made via Koldo, in a bar right in front of the PSOE HQ. Cerdán has categorically refused the accusations, saying it’s “absolutely false” and that he has never even met Aldama in person. “He’s just trying to save himself”, he said. And the PSOE has said it was taking “immediate legal actions” against him. (So far it has requested a “conciliation” meeting to request a retraction.)

ACT III: A dinner with Venezuela’s vice-president Delcy Rodríguez. Thought it was over? Nope! Aldama also said that he was responsible for organizing a secret visit to Spain by Rodriguez (who is on a U.S. sanctions list) replete with a dinner for her, several ministers—and PM Sánchez himself!

No table service for you. The dinner never took place though (which is good because Rodríguez is also banned from entering the EU under sanctions imposed by the bloc) but then-Transportation Minister Ábalos apparently spent 90 minutes with her in the plane during a layover on her way to Turkey (which is bad).
Not entirely convincing. The whole thing was a huge scandal back in 2020, but Ábalos said it was all just a big misunderstanding, as he was just there to meet with Venezuela’s tourism minister, Félix Plasencia, whom he considers “an old friend”.
On Airbnb? However, Aldama claims that Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska was aware of the Venezuelan VP’s arrival a month in advance and was in charge of arranging security for the occasion. Sánchez was supposed to meet her in a house in the Madrid barrio of El Viso that Aldama had rented on Airbnb. All allegedly, of course.
Why was Rodríguez here? According to Aldama, it had to do with “payment for projects and works that were never completed” and lawsuits filed against the Spanish company Duro Felguera. It also had to do with Spain’s recognition of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president in February 2019, something that Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro “was very angry about”.

So there you have it. It is now up to Aldama to come up with the evidence to support his accusations. However, there is no doubt that this corruption scandal is big. Bigger than others we’ve covered in the past. And it could be just the beginning. If it’s up to Aldama, it will be—once out of prison, he immediately went on the right-leaning COPE radio to, um, expand on his testimony (listen here).

Bonus track: But you know what really says ‘Pedro Sánchez is having a bad week’? His brother was named as a person of interest in a fraud investigation in Extremadura, where he works. Or “works”.

Remember David? He’s Pedro’s musician brother, who for the last seven years, has been the director of the Performing Arts Office and the Ópera Joven in the province of Badajoz. The thing is, people think he got the job for being Mr ~~Handsome~~ Sánchez’s bro and that he doesn’t really do much work. Oh, and that he lives in Portugal to avoid paying Spanish taxes.
The judge will see you now. A judge in Badajoz on Wednesday called Bro D and eight other people to testify in January in an investigation into his contract because the judge saw “rational indications of crimes” in his hiring. Which no one wants to be said about them.

Oh Pedro, it’s been a tough week. Right, dude?

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🕵️ Leaked email leads to Madrid socialist leader’s fall—and he’s probably only the first domino

Are you ready for a complex whodunit that ended with the defenestration (metaphoric) of a B Team Madrid politician—but most definitely won’t end there? Then we’ve got a story for YOU.

It’s complicated. It all began back in March—but this new part began on Sunday evening.

Attempted leak. That’s when right-leaning ABC newspaper reported that back in March the chief of staff of PM Pedro Sánchez’s chief of staff (yes, the COS has a COS) had WhatsApped Juan Lobato, the decidedly mediocre politician who leads the PSOE’s Madrid branch, with a leaked email from the lawyer of the boyfriend of Madrid regional President Isabel Díazo Ayuso (of the opposition PP) admitting that said boyfriend, Alberto González Amador, had indeed committed tax fraud. (Did reading that just give you a headache? Don’t worry, it’s normal). Anyway, we covered the beginning of this massive fraud scandal here.
Please use this weapon. Apparently the COS of the COS, Pilar Sánchez Acera, wanted Lobato to use the leaked email (a photograph of the confession) to attack Ayuso in that day’s regional parliamentary session. The general contents of the document had been published in PSOE-leaning papers already, but the whole document in all its glory had not.
Lobato said no? Lobato apparently declined to use the document because he was worried about its origin (it being a crime for the government to release private communications with citizens) and Sánchez Acera (also reportedly) then said she would leak it to the (pro-PSOE) ElPlural.com news site. Not long after, the image of the letter was published on that site. (BTW the head of ElPlural.com, Angélica Rubio, has been named by the Sánchez government to the board of directors of public media RTVE. So nothing pay-backy about this, right?)
Attack dog. Later that morning, Lobato attacked Ayuso in the regional parliament over the letter, citing the story El Plural.

So what’s the big deal? We wouldn’t be talking about this except for the ABC article. Why? Because ABC reported that in November, shortly after the Supreme Court began investigating Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz over the leak of the letter from Alberto González Amador’s lawyer, Lobato went to a notary to file a signed statement replete with screen grabs of his March WhatsApp conversation with Sánchez Acera. And that seriously BLEW SHIT UP. 💥

Very disappointed with you, Juan. The PSOE bigwigs went ballistic on Lobato and started demanding his resignation. Why? Well, because he did something stupid. If there was something incriminating in his WhatsApp chat with Sánchez Acera, heads could roll. Like heads of serious PSOE people. Because they might show how the document was leaked.

Which leads up to ‘why’. As in why did Lobato file a statement with a notary? It’s weird, right? Well, there are two ideas.

Lobato was protecting himself from prosecution. Maybe he was nervous that somehow he would be implicated in the leak, and he wanted to prove he wasn’t behind it. (Though he claims the notary filing shows there was no leak from the AG, in the context that makes, um, not much sense…)
Lobato was protecting himself from rivals in the PSOE. Sánchez Acera’s boss was Óscar López, who has been named as a possible replacement for Lobato as the Madrid PSOE boss. So this may be, “If I go down, you go down.”

Whose heads will roll? Inquiring minds want to know! Well, we already know of one. Lobato finally resigned on Wednesday, after days of saying he wouldn’t, with a statement about putting the “common good” above himself and how he didn’t fit with the current politics that don’t value dialogue. But that’s not the important bit.

What is, then? The Supreme Court has called Lobato to testify on Friday in the case of AG Álvaro García Ortiz, and they want to see his notary filing. Depending on the contents—and the timestamps of the messages—this could cause serious damage in the Sánchez government, and maybe end the AG’s time in office.

2.🥊 The war for prime-time TV is turning ugly

Another day, another story about the epic fight between two late-night talk show hosts that you probably don’t care about because you’ve never actually seen their shows. But as we always say, we give you the most salient points of a debate so you can actively participate in conversation this weekend while holding a glass of wine.

The new TV season has featured tons of bickering between Pablo Motos (PP-leaning host of El Hormiguero, on Antena3) and David Broncano (PSOE-leaning host of La Revuelta, on La 2). Both shows air at virtually the same time (although El Hormiguero is broadcast live and La Revuelta is taped earlier).

Both hosts have usually exchanged jokes with poison-tipped darts about how their respective shows are better than the other, but the two seemed to remain friendly.

Until this week, that is.

Broncano addressed the audience near the end of La Revuelta last Thursday, to say that “after many years, today it’s time to talk about this”. He proceeded to explain that his next guest that night, Jorge Martínez, winner of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship, had canceled a few minutes before his appearance after the people at El Hormiguero pressured him to do so. “They’ve screwed up our show. They’ve ruined all of the work we’ve done today,” he said.
We go first. Broncano also said the people at El Hormiguero don’t want anyone to come to his show first and “they have their ways to put pressure on people and this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

Broncano then broadcast a documentary about deer in protest (no, seriously, he did) while El Hormiguero had actor Hugh Grant as a guest. Funnily enough, both shows had nearly the same ratings.

Really, a tie. Pablo Motos achieved a 14.2% audience share with an average of 1,867,000 viewers, while Broncano (and, well, the deer) reached 13.9% with 1,821,000 viewers. (Please don’t tell Hugh Grant).

But this was only the beginning. After a weekend of non-stop coverage of Broncano’s accusations in the media, Motos decided to respond on his Monday night show.

He accused the host of La Revuelta of lying and apologized to his audience, arguing that “with everything that’s happening in Spain [i.e. the Aldama testimony above]” this isn’t what he wished to be talking about, but said he was being forced to “defend himself and his team”.
Motos said Jorge Martín’s team had promised his first TV appearance after winning the GP championship to El Hormiguero, and they had arranged for that to happen on Nov. 27. When Martín said on Instagram he’d be a guest on La Revuelta on Nov. 21, the El Hormiguero production team “reminded” him he could record the interview but it couldn’t air until after appearing with Motos. Which Broncano didn’t like.
Motos also said Broncano lied because the interview was indeed recorded—while Broncano suggested it hadn’t been. Which is all very confusing, right?

So what happens now? Well, Broncano is back to his usual shenanigans and offered a few subtle jabs at Motos but didn’t seem interested in escalating. We can’t wait for the next clash—and the next deer documentary🦌!

3. 🥘 Spain gets 36 new Michelin stars—and a new 3-star resto in…

Have we mentioned that we love food? Well, we do. So we look forward to this time every year when the Michelin restaurant guide reveals its new and promoted (and demoted—oooh!) restaurants. Michelin has been generous to Spain this year, with 32 new one-star restaurants, three that got promoted to two stars, and one new three-star giant! Plus, 12 lost a star. Intrigue!

And the winning region is… Catalonia’s restaurants received nine new stars in total, while Madrid’s got six. Andalucía, which had two of the restaurants promoted to two stars, got five new stars overall.
Spain is a culinary hotspot (as you know). With the new additions (and subtractions) Spain now has 16 ⭐⭐⭐restaurants, 33 ⭐⭐ joints, and 243 with one ⭐.
But 12 lost a star. In Barcelona, Moments in the Hotel Mandarin Oriental and Xerta each lost a star, as did Basque Country’s Zortziko (which closed) and Etxanobe Atelier. In Madrid, El Club Allard (never heard of it) lost a star, and Zuara Sushi closed.

And the winner is… The big winner of the night was the new 3-star Casa Marcial, in the small Asturian mountain village (aren’t all Asturian villages small?) of Arriondas.

Run by the brother/sister combo of Nacho and Esther Manzano, the restaurant has a “mar y montaña” meñu that combines the foodstuffs of the Cantabrian Sea with mountain goodies, with dishes like arroz con pitu de caleya (rice with free range chicken).
The Manzano family are leaders in the NUCA (Nueva Cocina Asturiana) movement and have various restaurants in Asturias, from NM (in Oviedo) and Narbasu (Cereceda) to Gloria (in Gijón and Oviedo). Its three tasting menus run €130, €165 and €220. We are so there. At least with an invite (hint, hint).

Bonus track. To get your salivary glands flowing, read Friend of Tapa Barney Jopson’s review of Dabiz Muñoz’s Madrid 3-star punk rock eatery DiverXO. Sure, it’ll set you back €450 a head, but how could you go wrong? Dabiz has been declared the world’s best chef, after all.

4. 🏠 Seems like this whole ‘protesting high housing costs’ thing has legs

Housing rights and other activist groups hit the pavement in Barcelona Saturday to protest high rental prices and demand, well, that they stop. What did the protestors say? "It's over. Let's lower the rents" and "Investors should not be allowed to come to our cities and play with apartments like Monopoly”. You dig?

How big? The organizers of the march—which was supported by some 4,000 groups—say 170,000 people showed up, while local police said it was 22,000. Because counting people is hard. Not because people’s politics get in the way of their math. Nope!
What do they want? Unlike the usual directional demands (cheaper housing, fewer tourists), demonstrators coalesced around two concrete asks: Forever contracts (so renters could never be kicked out) and a 50% rent cut. We commend them for making specific demands. Now, whether they’ll be more likely to get them is another thing…

A little history of the problem. People—especially young people—have reason to be pissed off about Spain’s housing costs. 66% of young people 18-34 live in their parental home, compared to 50% in 2010. Salaries have gone up less than 20% since 2015 while home prices have gone up over 50% in Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In Barcelona specifically, it costs about €20/m2 per month to rent, up 13.4% since a year ago, according to Idealista. Oh, and barely 90,000 new units are being built a year, less than half the annual numbers in the 1990s.

Protests have been growing. Barcelona’s was apparently inspired by Madrid’s massive one on Oct. 13 (we’re so proud!), which followed a super-huge (yes, that’s a word) one in April in the Islas Canarias, and which preceded other ones in Málaga, Sevilla and Cádiz two weeks ago. Funny thing: the local authorities said the Madrid march was, like the Barcelona one, only 22,000 people. Maybe that’s the number you use when you want to say, “Nothing to see here.”

The real problem? Seems really to be a lack of housing in places where people want to live. The government can try to put unpopular (with owners) caps on prices, but as we’ve seen so far in Catalonia that leans to weird distortions (owners switch to short-term rentals or take their properties off the market). As we noted before, Spain’s central bank says that 600,000 housing units need to be constructed between 2022 and 2025 to fix the current housing deficit.

So? Expect more protests, more housing promises from Pedro Sánchez (and Catalonia regional boss Salvador Illa), and little quick action. Optimistic! 🤦 Seriously, though, this can be fixed but it requires something in short supply—patience.

5.📸 Annie Leibovitz’s portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia

Let’s end this issue on a frivolous note, because why the hell not?

The Vanity Fair lady? We told you back in February that renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz had been commissioned by the Bank of Spain to take the portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia, which would become part of the bank’s prestigious art collection. Remember?

Well, great news… The portraits have been unveiled! And they are everything you expected them to be, maybe.

The portraits were unveiled by the Banco de España on Monday and made public on Tuesday. This is the first time the bank has chosen a photographer, instead of a painter, to create such portraits—a deliberate effort to modernize and internationalize its gallery of leaders, which dates back to 1782.
The total cost for the royal portraits was €137,000 (plus €97,000 for an additional portrait of Pablo Hernández de Cos, the bank’s former Governor, whose tenure ended in June). All expenses were covered by the Banco de España.

Going back to the King and Queen… have you checked out the portraits? The photos were taken in the Gasparini Hall of Madrid’s Royal Palace and have launched a slew of speculation. Is there a hidden meaning? What does that grand chandelier represent? And why does Queen Letizia look like a freaking movie star? Let’s discuss!

King Felipe VI wears the uniform of a Captain General of the Spanish Army and is standing in the shadows (in fact, it almost looks a little too dark, which is sus). El Mundo details lots of old-fashioned items like “a grand chandelier, an ornate table and a clock symbolizing the passage of time”, representing “stability and his role as the state’s keystone and the mechanism upon which the country operates”.
Queen Letizia is a whole different story. She wears a strapless black gown by Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga and a red satin shawl over her arms and looks like she’s attending the Academy Awards. Not only that, there’s plenty of sunlight coming from that door behind her. Notice any of the old-ass items seen in King Felipe’s portrait? We don’t (except for those ugly Louis XV chairs).

What does this mean? It could be nothing. Or, as some have said online, it could mean that Letizia is the sunshine that the Royal Family desperately needed in order to become modern. But who knows?

Leibovitz is no stranger to photographing royalty, as she took the official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II twice. Oh, and she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize in 2013, so it was a natural choice.

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