The historic treasurer of the Valencian PSOE, from the small town of Gilet and today suspended from membership, unofficially controlled the party’s finances until almost today.
Affable and endearing man for those who have met him in person, José Mara Catalua He is above all an old acquaintance of Valencian socialism. So much so that he has not only left his mark on the PSOE Valencian, in which he officially controlled his finances until 2004 and unofficially until almost today, but his influence jumped from reality to fiction at the hands of the character Josep Maria Madrid. Literature welcomed him in the novel by Ferran TorrentLimited society. It was the year 2002, and at that time Madrid (or Catalonia) was already working hard for the interests of the party. Today suspended from membership of the PSPV-PSOE after his investigation in the Azud case, began to stand out as the socialist mayor of the small Valencian municipality of Gilet, whose City Council governed for more than a decade: from 1983 to the 1995-1999 legislature. It was then that Joan Ignasi Pla I placed him in charge of Finance of the PSPV. The former treasurer of the party also came to serve as vice president of the extinct Bancaja.
Repudiated by the current leadership of the PSPV that leads Ximo PuigCatalonia abandoned all organic posts in 2004. This was on paper, because in practice he continued to work as treasurer until many years later, as has been proven in the indictment of the Azud case. What’s more, the investigators suspect that he acted as a procurer for the PSOE until at least 2019, that is, with Puig already as president of the Generalitat. In fact, a central role is attributed to him in the Azud plot. Presumably led by the builder Jaime February, Catalonia was one of the businessman’s privileged contacts in the socialist family. Not only have Catalonia been pointed out as responsible for the payments in B party workers who have testified as witnesses. They have also ended up incriminating his own diaries and notebooks that the Civil Guard intervened during the search of his home in Gilet.
The former socialist treasurer kept for years at home the contacts of big businessmen and notes that admit few interpretations: Payment as a condition for award.
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