Zapatero's inner circle denies any involvement in the Plus Ultra case and speaks of a "political witch hunt"

The former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is summoned, next June 2, as a defendant in the Audiencia Nacional for the rescue of Plus Ultra. He is being investigated for influence peddling, criminal organization and documentary falsification. Currently, UDEF investigators are carrying out searches, among which are his office and the headquarters of his daughters' companies. The initial complaint was filed by Manos Limpias based on a fragment of the interview that the businessman Víctor de Aldama, accused in various judicial cases, granted to Iker Jiménez on the program Horizonte.

According to 'ElPlural.com' the environment of the former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has denied that there is “no element” that links him to a crime within the framework of the known Plus Ultra case and has questioned his summons as investigated in the Audiencia Nacional. Sources close to the former socialist leader convey that there is “sadness and indignation” at a situation they consider unjust and without criminal foundation, while insisting that his professional activity has always been legal and unrelated to administrative decisions related to the airline's rescue.

In the former president's circle, they interpret his summons as a “political and media witch hunt”, linked, they maintain, to his role in the progressive sphere and his relevance in the current political scenario. They add that the procedure is having an unfair reputational impact in an still initial phase of the investigation. The same sources emphasize that the status of investigated does not imply guilt and recall that it is an instruction phase in which the facts must be clarified before deciding whether the case continues or is archived.

The investigation of the Audiencia Nacional focuses on the rescue approved during the pandemic and on determining whether part of the funds could have been diverted from their purpose, as well as on possible operations linked to an alleged money laundering scheme. Zapatero's circle insists that the former president had no relation to the granting of the rescue and defends that his advisory activity in the past was carried out within legality, trusting that the progress of the procedure will clear up any doubts about his role in the case, which is now in the hands of justice.