In the long and intense third session of the trial against David Sánchez, about ten witnesses addressed the three vertices of the case. The first refers to the allegedly handpicked hiring of the brother of President Pedro Sánchez as coordinator of the conservatories of the Diputación de Badajoz in 2017. The second focuses on the alleged irregularities surrounding a modification of David Sánchez’s position when in 2022 he became director of the Office of Performing Arts. The third addresses the alleged favoritism of Luis Carrero, a friend of David Sánchez, as coordinator of centers and cross-border activities also by the Diputación de Badajoz in 2024.
Regarding the first of these vertices, the most high-profile of the case, about twenty employees of the Diputación have testified who have not questioned either the hiring of David Sánchez or his diligence. But there are, for now, three key witnesses whose statements have opened a breach in the defense of the president’s brother. The most forceful is named Cristina de Frutos, a music teacher who testified this morning. She explained that she decided to apply for the position of coordinator of conservatories in 2017, but three days before the interview a friend, Luis Suárez, director of the conservatory of Plasencia, wrote to her to say that “the position was for Pedro Sánchez’s brother.”
Frutos then decided to give up, but she was called by the Diputación praising her project and chose to go to the interview. “It only lasted 15 minutes and they didn’t ask me anything. When I said goodbye, I was very clear that the position was not for me,” she declared. Later she learned that the winner of the contest was David Sánchez because “he had answered the questions well,” and that bothered her: “they didn’t ask me anything.” Some time later, Álvaro Jaén, the second of the witnesses who could weaken David Sánchez’s defense, contacted her.
Jaén, who at that time was a deputy in the Assembly of Extremadura, found the contest rules for the position of coordinator of conservatories “strange” and held a press conference to denounce it. Among the things that struck him about that call was the fact that a university degree was required and not a music teacher qualification. He was also surprised, like Frutos, that the rules did not include the scoring criteria for the candidates’ merits.
The third witness whose statement may affect the defense has gone largely unnoticed. He testified on Monday night and explained that he is dedicated to apartment rental. He recounted that David Sánchez contacted him to see an apartment that he ultimately did not take. “I am going to come live in Badajoz,” the president’s brother confessed to him, and that phrase is key because David Sánchez said it before the interview to access the position of coordinator of the conservatories.
Underlying the possible favoritism of David Sánchez is a political issue that, for now, the accusations have not been able to prove. On the contrary, the defense has taken the lead by summoning Estrella Gordillo, leader of the PSOE in Mérida in 2016, when the position of coordinator of conservatories began to be designed. Gordillo narrated that she and another of the accused, the former president of the Diputación de Badajoz Miguel Ángel Gallardo, supported Susana Díaz, Pedro Sánchez’s rival, in the PSOE primaries on May 21, 2017, in which the current president was elected secretary general of the party.
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For the defense, this issue is key because if Gallardo was Sánchez’s rival, why would he give a tailor-made job to his brother? The accusations believe that Gallardo did favor David Sánchez and that he did so because, although he supported Susana Díaz, he saw the possibility that Sánchez would win the primaries and wanted to ingratiate himself with him quickly. That is why the lawyers of the accusations insist that Gallardo reactivated the contest to award that position with “great urgency” in May 2017 before the famous primaries. The lawyer of Hazte Oír tried to ask Gordillo about alleged meetings held on May 8 and 10 in Extremadura between Gallardo and Sánchez, but the president of the court declared the question inadmissible, so it could not be asked.
What the lawyers of the accusation have been able to verify is that the change of David Sánchez’s job in 2022 involved the removal of incompatibility. One of the human resources employees of the Diputación de Badajoz explained that from the Presidency they instructed him to “remove the incompatibility.” And the former secretary of the Diputación himself acknowledged that he removed it, although, in his opinion, that removal is invalid “because the law requires that this type of position have incompatibility” with performing other tasks. What the accusation believes is that David Sánchez wanted to remove the incompatibility to be able to dedicate himself to other tasks on his own account.
The accusations are also convinced that David Sánchez was not fully dedicated to the tasks of his high-level position and that is why he sought a friend to perform his duties. Luis Carrero was like a “brother” to David, according to the emails contained in the case file. He worked in Moncloa, in the Presidency area when Sánchez was already president. At the end of 2023, a position of coordinator of centers and cross-border activities was announced in the Diputación de Badajoz. It was advertised on the intranet, but not in the corresponding bulletin. There was only one candidate, Carrero, who got the position and who, according to those same emails, knew in advance that the position was for him.
Several employees of the Diputación de Badajoz have testified that Carrero’s position was “necessary,” and that he performed his tasks correctly. They have also ruled out that he was secretly doing the work that corresponded to David Sánchez. But the accusations doubt the sincerity of many of these witnesses and have highlighted that at least two of them have improved their work situation in the last two months. Wednesday’s session is also expected to be intense. In the morning, agents of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard who investigated the case will testify and could join the ranks of witnesses who weaken Sánchez’s defense. In the afternoon, it will be the turn to talk about the accused.
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