It was supposed to be just two hours, but Luis Bárcenas had to eat a sandwich in the hallway of the Audiencia Nacional because his statement lasted five hours. It was one of the most anticipated appointments of the Kitchen plot trial, one of the biggest scandals in a country too accustomed to corruption. And it did not disappoint.
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Bárcenas acted today in a Montecristo key. In Alexandre Dumas’ novel, Edmond Dantès freed himself from prison and managed to rebuild his life. Something similar has happened to the former popular treasurer, who is now a free man. Retired, moreover. His only ‘responsibility’ is to help his son Willy with the accounting of the music group ‘Taburete’, who is not doing badly. Without ties, it was time to go all out.
In a grey suit, white Italian-collar shirt with a matching handkerchief in the chest pocket, dark tie, and silver hair swept back, it seems time has not passed Bárcenas by. Nor that he has spent eight years in prison. The president of the court urged him several times to take a break, but he replied no, no, he didn’t want to stop. The only physical weakness he showed was the permission he requested from the court to go to the bathroom “due to age-related issues”.
One of the culminating moments of Bárcenas’ statement was when he pointed fingers at the PP’s police leadership. “This police operation to spy on me was initiated by those responsible for the PP.” Proof? None. A few meters from him, Jorge Fernández Díaz was sitting on the bench. His composure was absolute. His former chauffeur Sergio Ríos, whom he identified as the mole who captured the plot, appeared more nervous. The court had to call him out for his excessive gesticulation.
Bárcenas has charged against the poker of power of Marianism. For, again, Rajoy himself, “M.R”, of whom he has again said that he recorded an audio destroying compromising papers. For his arch-enemy María Dolores de Cospedal, to whom he has returned the “let each stick bear its own candle”. For the then omnipresent Javier Arenas. And for the former leadership of the Ministry of Interior led by Jorge Fernández Díaz. Genoa took no prisoners, nor did Ferraz.
Every self-respecting ‘tenor’ of corruption must bear in mind that they can suffer consequences firsthand. It’s ‘sewer 101’, as Gabriel Rufián would say. When he began making statements that could harm the PP, Bárcenas recounted what he suffered in prison. First, his prisoner photo was leaked. Then he was categorized as a dangerous inmate, with special protection, “something done with jihadists”. He was also forced to strip, “something only done to drug traffickers”. He was sanctioned. Within prison walls, sometimes penitentiary law becomes blurred. There were even shower images that were never published.
Bárcenas also did not fail to mention that all this hell had a beginning -when he started singing from prison-, but also an end. The epilogue coincided with what was probably the toughest moment in the PP’s recent history: the 2018 no-confidence motion. With the change of government, the former treasurer’s daily life in Soto del Real took a 180-degree turn. Sánchez, in short, changed Bárcenas’ life.
