The left pressures Sánchez after Ábalos' conviction and Rufián asks: "Endure for what?"

The mask case ruling has hit the Government hard and opened a new rift in the investiture bloc. Following the Supreme Court's conviction of José Luis Ábalos to 24 years in prison, Koldo García to 19 years and eight months, and Víctor de Aldama to four and a half years without entering prison, the first reactions from the left have mixed indignation over corruption, discomfort with the PSOE, and pressure for Pedro Sánchez to turn what remains of the legislature into more than just resistance.

The most direct message came from Gabriel Rufián. The ERC spokesperson focused on Aldama's penal benefit for his collaboration with justice and issued a profound political warning to the Government. "Aldama's case is a message for Julio Martínez, Leire Díez, and others: if you 'collaborate,' you're free," he wrote on X. He then added an irony against the businessman: "Specifically, 3 fewer years for each program on Horizonte."

But the phrase with the most political weight was the last one. "That said, what's the point of holding on? What content does the rest of the legislature have? Governing is legislating, not resisting," Rufián declared. The warning is not minor. ERC has been pushing the Government for weeks to concretize measures and stop relying solely on parliamentary survival. With a ruling of this magnitude on the table, the republican spokesperson places Sánchez before the question that most discomforts Moncloa: if the legislature continues, it must serve to pass laws.

Sumar asks PSOE not to be "a burden"

Sumar has also raised its tone against the PSOE, though without adopting the early election thesis demanded by the PP. In a press conference, Aina Vidal, from the Comuns, and Eduardo Fernández Rubiño, from Más Madrid, have demanded that the socialists "clean up" and "put their house in order" so as not to burden the coalition government. The party believes that the ruling should be "exemplary," especially since it involved contracts for sanitary material awarded in the midst of the pandemic.

Vidal has been especially harsh on the role of the corruptors. She has criticized that Aldama, whom she has described as a "mafioso, unscrupulous snob," remains practically out of jail despite the seriousness of the facts. "Those who play with public affairs deserve a strong conviction," she defended, before regretting that Justice repeatedly allows those who buy political wills to "get away with it."

Sumar's position now is to demand explanations, not ballot boxes. Vidal has summarized the message with a phrase directed at both the PSOE and the PP: "Spain is not asking for elections, it is asking for explanations." The confluence wants Sánchez to take advantage of his appearance on Wednesday in Congress to present democratic regeneration measures, recover the anti-corruption office, and undertake reforms on incompatibilities of former presidents, in addition to unblocking social laws such as the repeal of the Gag Law or new housing measures.

Rubiño has added another element to the debate: the case of Alberto González Amador, partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The Más Madrid leader has asked that the firmness demanded with Ábalos also be applied to the procedure affecting the businessman, after the latest reports from Hacienda and the UCO on his millionaire income and his relationship with companies in the private health sector. For Sumar, the PP tries to turn the condemnation of Ábalos into a general cause against the Government while avoiding looking towards Puerta del Sol.

On the minority left, there have also been reproaches for the treatment received by Aldama. Enrique Santiago, parliamentary spokesperson for IU, has written that "there is no possible explanation" for the "corruptor and head of the criminal organization not entering prison." From Compromís, Alberto Ibáñez has expressed his "disgust" at the theft in the middle of the pandemic and has denounced that the corruptor remains "free and with the money."