In a meeting held this Monday, the National Party Directory met with the expectation of addressing the possibility of referring the case of the senator Gustavo Penadés to the Ethics Commission of the party. At the end of the meeting, the president of the Board of Directors, Pablo Iturralde, announced that the decision will be deferred until tomorrow.
Iturralde said that the Board decided to wait for the pronouncement of the Constitution and Legislation Commission of the Senate, which will discuss the impeachment of Penadés, before making a decision in relation to the Ethics Commission.
“The board of directors has two ways of acting, one is to say that it goes to the Ethics Commission because ‘it is said that it said, because it was on the networks or because there are a series of complaints.’ There are a series of serious complaints that the Senate is dealing with; Now, I cannot today echo the certainty that the complaints are those, in some cases they have been transcended, a lot of issues have been handled through WhatsApp… I want to have the true information and act not shouting from the tribune , but with all the information”, assured Iturralde.
“Here there are serious facts denounced, that the party listens to them very carefully, and no matter how high one is politically, Justice and the law are beyond all of us, and that is what we all have to submit to. Today it seemed to us that the element that we were missing is the decision of Parliament to take away the privileges of Senator Penadés”, continued the leader of the ruling party.
He added that, as the challenge is debated, we will obtain information about the facts. He also pointed out that the suspension of Penadés from the party was not raised at the Board meeting, since he is currently on leave.
According to information obtained by the newspaper The country, members of Por La Patria proposed to refer the case directly to the Ethics Commission, without success. «We consider that there were sufficient elements of conviction and a situation of alarm that forced the party to make clear decisions. However, a more gradual approach was chosen that we do not share,” sources from the sector told El País.
In other statements, Iturralde expanded his position: “We talked at length about a topic that has been in public opinion in recent days (…) We have not had difficulties with strong discussions within the board, but rather we have had cordiality and appropriate treatment that there has always been.”
The president of the White Board assured that the suspension of Penadés from the National Party was not raised at today’s meeting, and pointed out that the senator is on party leave by his own decision.
«Apparently, there is a series of complaints, a series of serious complaints that the Senate is dealing with and that tomorrow (Tuesday) the Senate will deal with. Now, I cannot today echo the certainty that the complaints are those, “he specified.
