The family business of a deputy of full confidence of Sánchez, linked to Lambán's wind power plants rain

A curious network of companies has emerged behind the controversial wind power concessions in the socialist fiefdom of Javier Lambán. A curious network that reaches the family of one of Pedro Sánchez's most trusted deputies, Susana Sumelzo. Until now, the company that most benefited from this renewable business embedded with a shoehorn in the middle of the mountain was Forestalia, the company of Fernando Samper, one of the businessmen of reference of the president of Aragon. But the truth is that an analysis of the brutal network of companies that has allowed the leap to stardom of this former businessman of pigs reveals a curious practice: a permanent exchange of administrators in the companies involved between the relatives of Susana Sumelzo and those of the Samper family.

Susana Sumelzo, from Zaragoza, is no stranger to Javier Lambán -her closeness is well known-. But her trust with Pedro Sánchez is equally remarkable. She is currently a deputy in the Congress and has been secretary of Public Administrations and Municipal Policy of the PSOE. A very obvious heavyweight until October 2021 and still president of the Joint Committee for the European Union and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the Socialist Party.

The brother and cousin of Susana Sumelzo

An obvious link between Pedro Sánchez and Javier Lambán. Well, a detailed study of the movements of the companies controlled by Fernando Samper -a businessman who has benefited from Aragon's thriving renewable energy business through his main company, Forestalia-has shown that Susana Sumelzo's brother and cousin have not ceased to control the companies that later, once some of the necessary administrative permits have been processed, have ended up in Samper's orbit.

This is the case of companies such as Renovables Santia SL, where Fernando Samper maintains full control through his company Fernando Sol SL and which previously had Juan José Sumelzo -brother of the deputy Susana Sumelzo- and Fernando Sumelzo -cousin of the same politician trusted by Pedro Sánchez- as joint administrators.

Or the case of Renovables Luchán SL, where, once again, Juan José and Fernando Sumelzo appeared until November 2019 as administrators and now the 'sun' of the Aragonese renewables appears: Fernando Sol, that is, Fernando Samper. It is striking that even the dates coincide in the movements between some of the companies such as Renovables Santia and Luchán.

Or, to cite one more case, the case of Renovables Ores, which went from the same administrators of the Sumelzo family to the same star administrator: Fernando Sol. And only one month before the two previous cases.

Back-and-forth operations between family clans

Transit operations of control of the companies are recorded in the documentation in the hands of Libertad Digital in dozens of companies, which is not strange considering the brutal corporate network of Fernando Samper. There are even operations back and forth between family clans of administrators of these two surnames, as in the case of Energías Renovables de Lisitea SL or Energías Renovables de Dione or Energías Renovables de Polux or Energías Renovables de Esculapio.

A whole dance of business administrators that ends up, to top it all, and after obtaining all the necessary permits, reports and official procedures from the Government of Javier Lambán in a third operator, this one already a large company with enough energy experience to exploit the windmills.

And the data reveal a strong closeness between the Sumelzos and Fernando Samper, the head of a company that has caused a headache for the big energy companies in the last auctions held in Aragon with the aim of awarding renewable megawatts. The company in question is Forestalia, the company created by Samper in 2011 and which boosted the activity of the until then pork magnate.

Fractionation of mega-parks

And this is not the only fire to which Lambán has to respond in relation to this sector. The Government of Aragon promoted a tender -through the Aragonese Institute of Environmental Management (Inaga), dependent on the Department of the Environment- to alleviate the backlog of hundreds of applications for renewable energy parks through external consultants. These consulting firms were to evaluate and process the environmental impact statements (EIS) for the years 2021 and 2022.

The bottleneck is caused by the intentional division of mega-parks into smaller parks or units - of up to 49.9 MW - because that is the maximum limit that the autonomous communities can process without ceding control to the central government. Translated: if you want the permit to depend on Lambán's Aragón, you have to do it that way.

A very considerable part of these projects has ended up in Forestalia, the company of Fernando Samper, whose close friendship with Lambán is well known. But to top it all, the aforementioned tender, for an amount of 167,520 euros, was awarded in three lots to three consulting firms that have begun to grant environmental impact statements. Which and whose companies are they? One of them is Calidad y Estudios Asesoría SL, owned by brothers Federico and Estrella Vicente Lozano. Both are, in turn, brothers of María Vicente Lozano, none other than the director of wind projects at Forestalia. And as a consultant, she is not only issuing environmental impact statements for Forestalia, but has also come to draft wind farm projects for this same company of Samper.

Now it is discovered that, in addition to all this, the contact between Samper and Sumelzo reaches the business level. And the Sumelzos are also members of Lambán's circle of trust.