The photo shows a young and very thin Pedro Sánchez, in 2017, sitting on a stone step eating tapar rice and a canned drink while walking around the towns of Andalusia. The PSOE activist Cristian Corvillo posted it on his social networks, full of pride, who, out of personal interest, was against Susana Díaz, Sánchez's primary rival, and had shown himself delighted to serve as the future president's driver on his journey through the south.
At that time, Sánchez's driver played two bands that were the same. He was in the PSOE but, in his town, in a rare transfusion he supported, even attending the management meetings, the candidate of another party, former mayor of the PSOE, Luisa Ruiz, without caring that she was accused of embezzlement and prevarication. Ruiz, while he held his position at the head of the Peñarroya City Council, had taken him under his protection after putting him out to tender for the social services of the Córdoba City Council. At that point on the road, the socialist Cristian Corvillo had already faced "a debt of half a million euros with social security" and was remembered in his town, according to the sources consulted, "for not having paid his workers for months."
Although the PSOE and the Government assured on Thursday that he was neither the driver nor was he a socialist, Sánchez's traveling companion had already been reported once to the party's internal charges. Later, when thanks to the services provided he had the opportunity to touch power, he would be denounced again internally for trying to manipulate primaries based on irregular affiliations. He emerged unscathed from both complaints.
Cristian Corvillo, in his town, is called "the snake charmer." So it is not so difficult that he joined with absolute ease the group of other snake charmers, such as Aldama, Koldo or Ábalos, convicted or in prison, who prospered in the shadow of Sánchez with impunity, establishing more than dubious methods to obtain and remain in power.
After helping the president in the primaries, in his case twice, his name is registered in the Hydrocarbons case, in the purchase of the Ábalos villa and in the Masks case. And, since Thursday, the day he was arrested at his home and released, as the man who according to the UCO channeled the bribes into Adif contracts. He got along worse with Santos Cerdán, whom he insulted with denigratory epithets, but, even so, for a time they lived together out of interest. «Cristian is the example of how Sánchez has led the PSOE. Unable to incorporate his critics or those who legitimately disputed his position, he has put himself in the hands of harmful adventurers," says an Andalusian socialist politician who has closely followed Corvillo's adventures. In Peñarroya, after the arrest, a message jumped from cell phone to cell phone: "Karma exists."
The first time that Cristian Corvillo was reported to the internal bodies of the PSOE was precisely shortly before the primaries began in which Sánchez and Susana Díaz faced each other for the General Secretariat, for a matter that dates back to the end of 2014. Corvillo was the trusted man of Luisa Ruiz, the mayor of Peñarroya (a municipality of 10,000 inhabitants, key in the internal processes of the party in Córdoba), who was facing several accusations by the Provincial Court for prevarication, falsification of documents, embezzlement and fraud in the subsidies of the Miner Funds, basic for the recovery of the old mining basin from which the town was nourished. Accusations that would later be substantiated in a sentence by the Provincial Court of more than 6 years in prison and 18 years of disqualification.
For five and a half hours, at the party's provincial headquarters, four leaders, led by Juan Pablo Durán, the organization secretary from Córdoba, tried to convince her that she could not be the next candidate due to her accusation. But they offered him to choose a substitute. The mayor chose Cristian Corvillo, a grassroots activist who, despite his good contacts, did not obtain the approval of the provincial structure. Corvillo was also appointed, by force, in an almost secret assembly, called by the mayor and prohibited by the party. His appointment was even announced in the press, but the coup did not work because it was not ratified. "It's not like he had a good reputation in the town," says a local resident, "because the workers he hired have family and friends, and everyone knew that there were months when he didn't pay them, claiming that it was the Board that was late." In February 2015, Luisa Ruiz, in protest, founded the Peñarriblense Democratic Union.
The complaint presented to the provincial executive commission of the PSOE in Córdoba, to which Crónica has had access, read as follows: «The reason for this is to convey to you the following challenges to the discharge of the direct members that are related for the reasons stated: Cristian Abel Corvillo, PSOE activist. Even without being included in the independent candidacy (UDPñ), he actively collaborates with the aforementioned party.
The complainants provided the new formation's website with photos of Corvillo at board meetings. An informative file was opened, which came to nothing. The sources consulted assure that Pedro Sánchez was informed at the time of the actions of his companion, without result.
The next internal complaint in which he is accused of irregular practices, although indirectly, occurs in 2021, when Corvillo was already so integrated among the trusted men who had accompanied the president in the primaries, that he boasts of being the one who made the lists in Córdoba and even in Andalusia because he was "Ábalos' man."
That year there were primaries again. On this occasion they faced Susana Díaz with Juan Espadas, backed by Pedro Sánchez. «To the Federal Department of Militant Assistance. Organization Secretariat of the PSOE. Ferraz. “It is reported that there are 50 discharge requests,” comes the complaint. «Some of the applicants are part of another political organization (Peñarriblense Democratic Union) different from ours. Others are affiliated in other locations. We do not understand why people who are not registered here have to participate in decisions that concern this organization... It is clear that what is intended is to change the will of a group... It is not lost on anyone that these affiliations seek participation in the upcoming congressional processes," wrote the secretary of the local organization, Ana Ruiz.
«Everything was submitted after the deadline and the handwriting of all the affiliation documents was the same, it belonged to a socialist councilor who, although he was on the government team, was a supporter of Luisa and Cristian, but the response we received from Ferraz was: "The more militants we have, the better," says a local PSOE leader. Militancy with supporters of Espadas doubled.
