With that characteristic slyness, Mariano Rajoy once said about the party’s slush fund he presided over: “We knew everything, except what appeared in the newspapers.” The Gürtel case politically brought down the leader of the PP, but he has never had to assume judicial responsibility for the illegal financing network that operated for years within the PP and provided undeclared bonuses to a large part of its leaders and served to pay for the renovation of the party’s headquarters on Génova street in Madrid, as well as numerous electoral events and to enrich some necessary intermediaries, such as the party’s own treasurer, Luis Bárcenas. Several judges have investigated this case and its derivatives, but Rajoy has not been accused of anything in these years. Today he will testify again before the Audiencia Nacional. It is necessary to review, now with perspective, what has happened so that M. Rajoy’s involvement has not gone further and is only fodder for talk shows or social media memes. We are going to divide one of the most relevant corruption cases of recent decades in Spain into three phases:
