The People’s Party (PP) is stepping up its offensive in parliament over a contract signed between Spain’s Ministry of Defense and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey to build 45 new training aircraft for Spanish fighter pilots. … This attack will replace the current and already obsolete F5 and T-38, with a value of more than 3 billion euros (specifically 3,120). ABC announced Tuesday that the award would have been possible without the contest.
Now, in addition to the Lok Sabha meeting, which earlier in the week registered a series of issues and requested the appearance of branch ministers before committees, the Senate will do the same. Alberto Nuñez Feijo of the Senate, led by Alicia García, and others have proposed a new initiative for Pedro Sánchez’s government to respond in writing to the contract awarded to Ankara by the Socialist Ministry of Margarita Robles.
The People’s Group of the Senate believes that “an urgent explanation is required” from Minister Robles regarding the recent acquisition of Turkish Hürjet aircraft manufactured by the public defense company Turkish Aerospace Industries and currently in the development stage, i.e. not even manufactured. The reason for this is that the contract “would have been formalized without public procedures, in a framework where the equipment had not even been manufactured, and without the technical and strategic criteria justifying its operation being publicly clarified.”
Furthermore, in a letter obtained by this newspaper, the public condemned the purchase of 45 aircraft, saying that the decision was “supposed to have been made after the meeting between Government President Pedro Sánchez and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last June.” They say this raises questions about “the deal’s transparency, economic opportunities and technical evaluation.”
That is why the PP has registered four questions regarding what they consider to be the central executive’s “last resort.” “Can the Spanish government confirm whether the contracting procedures guaranteeing competition and transparency required by current public procurement regulations have been followed?” It also asks to know “the technical and strategic criteria followed by the Spanish government to select an aircraft model that has not yet been produced. As announced by the ABC, this aircraft model has also not been evaluated by the Air Force and Space Forces.”
Senator José Antonio Monago, who signed this new set of questions, also called on Moncloa to justify the cost of more than 3 billion euros for the operation, which he said was “not the same ‘modus operandi’ as the 10 billion euros announced by Sánchez in April to achieve the 2% of GDP that Spain has already committed to NATO, in addition to not being known to Congress.” Finally, the public calls for an assessment of the “possible missed opportunity for the defense industry” by failing to promote a process open to Spain’s or, it failed, European suppliers.
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