Former Balearic President Francina Armengol, who has been the President of the Spanish Parliament since 2023, is once again in the spotlight in connection with the corruption scandal surrounding the awarding of public contracts by the Socialists. There is a strong suspicion that she lied during a hearing in the Spanish Senate. These revelations cast a critical light on her role and possible involvement in the far-reaching case.
The Mask Scandal and Koldo García’s Role
For some time now, justice and police have been intensively investigating a suspected corruption scandal involving various socialist politicians. At the center of these investigations is Koldo García, a former advisor to former Spanish Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos. García is accused of brokering public contracts in exchange for high commissions.
In the Balearic Islands, for example, the sale of face masks at the beginning of the pandemic was handled through this corruption network. The then regional government paid a total of 3.7 million euros for this, financed with EU funds. It later turned out that the masks delivered were fake. Many of these questionable deals were made in cooperation with the flamboyant businessman Víctor de Aldama. Aldama, who is being investigated in several corruption cases, apparently worked closely with the Socialists for years. In recent months, however, he has gained prominence by publicly incriminating the party, which has surprisingly earned him significant sympathy from parties and actors on the right.
Explosive Interview and Armengol’s Contradictory Statements
Last Thursday (June 13), Víctor de Aldama appeared on the program “Horizonte” hosted by the well-known conservative presenter Iker Jiménez. There, he revealed that he had met with Francina Armengol during her time as president at the Consolat de Mar, the Balearic government seat in Palma. Although Aldama refused to reveal the exact content of the meeting during the interview, he emphatically stressed that it was not about the purchase of masks.
This statement poses a significant problem for Francina Armengol. Only last year, during a hearing of a commission in the Spanish Senate, which was dealing with the investigation of the mask scandal, she had emphatically denied knowing Víctor de Aldama. After the businessman’s statements became known, Armengol suddenly remembered the meeting on Friday. According to Armengol, he was part of a group of representatives from the Mallorcan tourism group Globalia. The meeting was reportedly about the ultimately failed sale of the airline Air Europa to Iberia.
Even before this incident, it had become known that the then President of the Balearic Islands had exchanged text messages with Aldama. In these messages, she asked him, among other things, if he had contacts who could obtain children’s face masks. The businessman then asked Armengol for a few hours to arrange this.
Looming Legal Consequences
Armengol’s admission of having met Aldama could now have serious legal consequences. Already on Saturday, the far-right platform Hazte Oír filed a complaint with the Spanish Supreme Court against the President of Parliament. The organization’s lawyers state in the indictment that it has been proven that the politician lied before the Senate commission. Should this suspicion be confirmed, it could not only severely damage Armengol’s political career but also shake confidence in the integrity of high political offices in Spain.
