The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has requested from the Catalan Audit Office and the Court of Auditors all expenses related to the advertising campaign for the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia that took place between April 26 and May 10, 2024, in which the socialist Salvador Illa emerged victorious.
Hence, the accounting books of the PSOE for the years 2024 and 2025 are also requested, “making a collection of the specific entries that are relevant for their clarification.”
The investigator considers that this plot allegedly organized by the former PSOE Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, along with Leire Díez, and another group of people, was intended to “destroy” judicial proceedings affecting the party and the Government.
Among the people they would have counted on for this was a journalist, now deceased, who had a website under the name Crónica Libre. In it, besides introducing news aimed at undermining such judicial processes, it would also have been used to channel the party’s payments for these works.
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That is why Pedraz now demands all data from the advertising campaigns between 2024 and 2025. He orders to collect all data in a “complete and precise manner, the object of the services provided, the contract price, the amounts actually paid, the payment method used, the contact persons with the said company, and the political party officials who authorized each contract.”
For that reason, according to the court order, 20,000 euros could have been paid and managed by the party’s former communications director. The magistrate indicates that the website in question had a “preponderant intervention” in the dissemination of certain information, especially some linked to the Villarejo case – about the former Police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo – which in turn could affect the judicial cases linked to the PSOE. In an intercepted conversation with Leire Díez, there is talk of “Operation PSOE.”
Leire Díez was labeled as the party’s “plumber” after certain meetings at the party headquarters on Ferraz Street and her alleged attempts to extort several prosecutors became known last year. The party distanced itself from her but months later, in December 2025, she ended up arrested in a corruption operation linked to SEPI. From the seized devices, the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has highlighted this new plot. Additionally, one of its targets to “destroy” was one of the heads of this unit, Antonio Balas, who now leads the operation.
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