Escrivá denies meeting with Zapatero was about Plus Ultra rescue

José Luis Escrivá, the governor of the Bank of Spain, has denied that a September 2020 meeting with former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was related to the rescue of airline Plus Ultra, instead stating it was to seek parliamentary support for a pension agreement Source: elespanol.

The meeting

The meeting took place on 7 September 2020, when Escrivá was Minister of Social Security. It was revealed in a judicial probe into the so-called 'Zapatero case'. Escrivá testified before the Congress Economic Committee on 23 June 2026 that he did not know Zapatero beforehand and arranged the meeting via assistants Source: infobae.

Context

• Plus Ultra received €54 million in rescue aid from the SEPI fund in March 2021. Court documents suggested Escrivá's meeting might have been to facilitate a deferral of Social Security debts, a requirement for SEPI aid Source: elespanol.
• Escrivá countered that being up-to-date with Social Security is compatible with having deferred payments, and that compliance certificates are issued automatically, not by the minister Source: infobae.

Escrivá's explanation

"I wanted, through Mr. Zapatero, to access a part of the left-wing parliamentary spectrum to find these supports," Escrivá said, noting that a Pacto de Toledo pension agreement was due in October 2020 Source: infobae. He added that he felt "unprotected" by accusations from the People's Party (PP) that border on "slander and defamation" Source: elespanol.