MADRID, 12 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, Bildu and Podemos agree that the former president of the Government Mariano Rajoy must appear before the Congressional commission in charge of investigating ‘Operation Catalonia’, the name by which the alleged maneuvers of the ‘sewers’ of the State to discredit the Catalan independence groups.
Congress already investigated this matter in 2017, when the PP was still governing, but has decided to reopen investigations again at the request of ERC and Junts. Last August, the PSOE agreed to create this body and two other investigative commissions in exchange for the Catalan independentists supporting the socialist Francina Armengol to preside over Congress and to gain the majority on the Chamber Table.
Thus, everything indicates that the former Prime Minister and former leader of the PP will have to submit to interrogation by the parliamentary groups. Rajoy already appeared before a parliamentary investigation commission in December 2021, which investigated the ‘Kitchen case’, the operation concocted by the Ministry of the Interior with the patriotic police to rob the former ‘popular’ treasurer Luis Bárcenas of evidence that implicated officials of the party in corruption cases.
In addition, the PSOE, Sumar and their partners have included in their respective lists of those appearing the former general secretary of the PP and former minister María Dolores de Cospedal; to the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz, to his former Secretary of State Francisco Martínez and to the former Director General of the Police Ignacio Cosidó.
The forecast is that the former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro will also parade through this commission; the former Secretary of State for Security Ignacio Ulloa and the now PP deputy in the Madrid Assembly, Alicia Sánchez Camacho, since they appear in several of the lists registered in Congress, to which Europa Press has had access.
The list of those appearing proposed by the two parties that make up the coalition Government also includes the names of several of the police officers still active or already retired who have already appeared in different parliamentary investigation commissions in recent years.
The person who does not appear this time on the list of the PSOE and Sumar is the former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, whose presence is once again seen as relevant by ERC, Junts, Bildu and Podemos. On this occasion, the socialists are in favor of taking testimony from Rafael Redondo Rodríguez, who was Villarejo’s partner in the CENYT company.
Furthermore, to try to clarify the ‘Andorran plot’ of ‘Operation Catalonia’, the PSOE also proposes the appearance of those who were Interior attachés at the Spanish embassy in the Principality Bonifacio Díaz and Celestino Barroso, as well as Higini Cierco who was president of the Private Bank of Andorra, who are also asked to be questioned by the independentistas, the PNV or Podemos.
The appearances requested by the PSOE are completed with that of the journalist specialized in interior affairs and courts Pedro Águeda.
