It all started with some audio files that were contained in one of Koldo García’s phones. The trial being held in the Supreme Court against former minister José Luis Ábalos, his advisor Koldo García, and the commissioner Víctor de Aldama saw a monumental dispute this afternoon between Koldo’s lawyer and the prosecutor of the case over those recordings.
The agreement between PP and Vox in Aragon is broader than that of Extremadura: a document with 39 pages, thirteen sections, and 117 measures. With this agreement, Jorge Azcón will be sworn in as president of Aragon next week.
“If we take a look at our most recent past and if we broaden our view to international developments, we will become aware that Catalonia has left behind the time of paralysis and indecision. Catalonia has left behind the time of division and confrontation. Catalonia is living today the time of solutions to transform the country.” In the traditional institutional message from the President of the Generalitat for Sant Jordi, Salvador Illa has this year painted an optimistic picture of Catalonia, based on an analysis of the global situation, where armed conflicts carry great weight, but also based on the internal diagnosis. Illa believes that “Catalonia is on the move and determined.”
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:
“I will answer everything I am asked.” Although the president of the court judging Operation Kitchen warned her that she had been provisionally cleared, meaning any false answer could serve to reopen the case against her, the former secretary general of the Popular Party arrived this Thursday at the Audiencia Nacional eager to distance herself from any parapolice operation to steal information from Luis Bárcenas because at that time she “was certain” that “that person you are talking about” (referring to the former treasurer) did not have any document that could compromise the Popular Party leadership over its irregular financing. Words that could contradict a recording that was made public in which she asked former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo:
As expected, Mariano Rajoy has denied the main accusations made by former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas about his knowledge of an illegal slush fund within the party or about a supposed operation orchestrated by the Popular Party, the Government, or the Police to steal data that could criminally affect him. In fact, for the former president of the government, there was no illegal operation.
There will be an investiture of Jorge Azcón. As La Vanguardia has been able to confirm, PP and Vox have reached an agreement for the investiture of the popular candidate, who won the elections on February 8 and obtained 26 of the 67 deputies distributed in the Cortes de Aragón. In this sense, he needs the 14 Vox deputies to reach an absolute majority.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has appealed the indictment of Begoña Gómez, wife of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, agreed by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. The investigating judge brought her, her advisor Cristina Álvarez, and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés to the brink of the defendant’s bench, for the crimes of influence peddling, corruption in private sector business, misappropriation, and embezzlement of public funds.
The Prison Surveillance Judge José Luis Castro has rejected the application of the semi-freedom regime to former ETA members Soledad Iparraguirre “Anboto” and Juan Ramón Carasatorre, which means their return to prison.
María Guardiola was sworn in this Wednesday as president of the Junta de Extremadura after the agreement with Vox with 61 measures. In total, Guardiola has obtained the support of 40 of the 65 deputies of the Extremadura Assembly: that is, the votes of the PP (29) and Vox (11).