The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has stated this Monday that he will not resign from his position after the information of the last few days about his links with those investigated in the Koldo case, since he did not "order the hiring" of any of the companies linked to the scheme directly.
Torres has denied that he lied during his appearance in the investigation commission of the Congress of Deputies that elucidates political responsibilities within the framework of this scheme that is being investigated by the Central Court of Instruction number 2 of the National Court, and has ratified that he does not "know" to have met with one of the investigated businessmen, Ignacio Díaz Tapia.
However, based on the report known these days by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, he has admitted that there must have been some meeting in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, although he does not remember it.
"I am not going to resign, but I am even stronger," the minister said in an appearance before the media at the regional headquarters of the PSOE in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
He has insisted that he did not order "to directly hire anything", since that corresponded to the technicians of the implicated ministries, in this case the Canarian Health Service (SCS).
"I was asked in the investigation commission of the Congress if I knew Mr. Tapia and what I said, and I want to be scrupulous, (...) is that I thought I did not know this man, I could not place his face, that I was not aware of knowing him and it is true, I cannot place his face," said Ángel Víctor Torres.
He has appealed to "rigor" not only when reporting on the news of the case, but also among the political class, for which he has requested Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular "loyalty with the Canarian society" and to let "justice move forward" and has asked: "Do they want the truth or do they only want to tarnish the name of Ángel Víctor Torres?"
Based on this second report of the UCO that analyzes conversations held by those investigated in the Koldo case, named after the advisor of the former minister José Luis Ábalos, he would have contacted Torres several times during 2020 to get the Canary Islands to buy coronavirus tests from one of the companies linked to the scheme, the Eurofins Megalab laboratories.
In this case, the business resulted in the awarding to this multinational of three contracts for a total amount of 5.36 million euros by the Government of the Canary Islands in December 2020 and January and February 2021, dates in which a health control system was implemented for travelers arriving to the islands through PCR tests for covid-19.
At the time he appeared before the investigation commission of the Congress of Deputies, on June 10, the minister alleged that, as president, he never ordered to contract with any specific company, while assuring that he had no knowledge of knowing Díaz Tapia, something he has ratified this Monday.
In the UCO's report, he added, "it is stated that there was a request for a meeting in the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands", but that his team has informed him that there was no meeting at the headquarters of the regional Executive, so "there must have been a meeting in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, surely in the course of some plenary session", a type of appointments that were very common and he maintained with "many people" throughout his mandate (2019-2023), he stressed.
In addition, he has defended that after that meeting that the OCU accredits in August 2020, "nothing was contracted", since it was later, in December, when the first link with Eurofins Megalab was signed.
In any case, he has indicated that with these contracts they tried to "save lives" and that, as accredited by internal reports from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, "if it had not been done, we would have had dozens of deaths", so "what had to be done was done: defend the general interest."
"If the Government of the Canary Islands and the people of the Canary Islands were deceived, those who were individually profiting from these proposals should pay for it with the full force of the law, because if we had had then a slight suspicion of these manipulations, it is not that it would have come out in the media, it is that we would have gone to the duty court," Torres remarked.
And about the decision of the PP to file a lawsuit against the PSOE for alleged crimes of influence peddling, bribery and illegal financing, he recalled that the only party "convicted of corruption" is the PP and that they have "more than 30 active cases", while lamenting that the popular demand "what they do not do."
