The vicetodo And number two of the government of Mariano Rajoy, he argues that he knows nothing of what is known as the Operation Catalonia, which no one indicated at that stage any order in this regard, that he never gave an instruction or the CNI or any police officer to illegally investigate political rivals as there are several positions of that team already imputed and that he never knew or had anything to do with the controversial commissioned commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. To all parties except the PP and Vox seemed that this repeated denial hypothesis until satiety for Santamaría on Monday, during his appearance in the Congress of the Congress’ investigation into those activities promoted from the dome of that Ministry of Interior, is hardly credible. And they recalled that then the former Vice President, who has been out of politics for seven years, sent so much that until 218 days president of the Generalitat, during the intervention with article 155 of the Constitution.
This Monday, the former Catalan president has announced that he will file a criminal complaint against those who illegally spy on him with the program Pegasus Within the framework of Operation Catalonia, which the Catalan politician was the first documented victim in Spain of the espionage plot.
The Commission for the Investigation of Operation Catalonia, which is resurfaced in the last legislatures as a parliamentary Guadiana according to interest and today, is focusing on the last sessions to find out the degree of responsibility and knowledge that they could have in certain illegal and irregular actions of the so -called patriotic police against separatist rivals of the PP different responsible for the government of Mariano Rajoy between 2015 and 2018 In the final phase of process independence and before being evicted from power by a motion of censure.
But all the forced appearances to go to those sessions, from Rajoy himself to his then Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández, already charged and pending judgment for that case, his former Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, also accused, the former Minister of Defense and former general secretary of the PP, Dolores de Cospedal, the former Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montor with the same strategy and the same content. They neither knew anything, nor did he order it, nor did they have any direct or indirect knowledge of those spying not allowed rivals, nor did any instruction occurred in that line to the CNI or other police bodies. Some deputies of ERC, Junts, Bildu or the PSOE already speak of Operation Amnesia.
Most of those senior positions of the PP executives of the Rajoy stage defend now that they either knew or had any relationship, talk, contact or businesses with Commissioner Villarejo, in the epicenter of that operation and that before the commission itself and in different interventions it has indicated to that government as the one who commissioned them those works and that appears in various tests and recordings in talks with Fernández Díaz, Martínez and Cospedal Tactics, maneuvers and jets about it.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría followed that script, more calm than others. As in his day, he was located to the former unique vice president of that executive in the moderate sector of that cabinet and the PP, with good bilateral relations with the former Catalan vice president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, and was entrusted with the command of the labe Some deputies imagined that a uncheck could occur. It did not happen.
It was tried by the first Ione Belarra, spokesman and general secretary of Podemos, one of the parties with the most leaders victims of those espionages and tactics. Santamaría replied that she did not know everything and Belarra accused her of trying in vain “to become silly” because she reasoned that she “sent a lot in that government.” It did not work. Of course, the former Vice President admitted that she was very powerful, but she put some buts: “It was the unique vice president, everything touched me, I had to exercise power, but I did not enjoy it.”
To Belarra and then to Jon Iñarritu, by EH Bildu, to Josep Pagés, from Junts, to Pilar Vallugera, from ERC, Gerardo Pisarello already adds Manuel Arribas, of the PSOE, endorsed the same thesis on that no operation could be ordered Catalonia because he understands that he never existed. Belarra stressed that there are police reports with 6,900 searches for information committed to the networks against the leaders of his party and mentioned in that line the report against Podemos. Nothing. Santamaría recalled that he has been out of the political landscape for seven years and that although he reads and tries to be up to date, he is neither in anything that was not always acting in the framework of the Constitution and legality, with the CNI and in any of the many organizations and centers that were then under his command. He also took the opportunity to strain the message that this government with an absolute majority found a Spain in “technical bankruptcy” and dedicated itself to saving it from the rescue.
The former Vice President was bothered that Belarra La Tildara of “Politician daughter of Mauricio Casals”, president of La Razón and attached to the presidency of Atresmedia. Santamaría informed that his only reference in politician was Rajoy, “straight and full man.”
Iñarritu wanted to inquire about his authority before the CNI and its director, Félix Sanz Roldán, who is in the spotlight of some of those actions or of possible espionages with the Israeli program Gagus. Santamaría granted that the center was under his command and that he kept Sanz Roldán in office, which came from the previous stage of the government of the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and worked for three presidents and four legislatures. He also shielded that on the legal works entrusted to the CNI and his expenses reserved, he realized when he appeared before the Secret Commission of Official Secrets. Several deputies tried to throw their tongue on their acquaintances and recurring personal, political and management differences with Cospedal. He barely granted, in a replica, that he had not admitted a thing or the opposite about that.
What he did, wanting, was to enter the debate with the deputies of Junts and ERC about the reasons to use for the first time in the history of this democracy article 155 of the Constitution to intervene the Generalitat and stop the attempt to unilaterally decree the independence of Catalonia. Santamaría exalted that this decision was made with the consensus of the PSOE of Pedro Sánchez and Citizens, which was necessary and useful and took refuge in the Supreme Court ruling to highlight that the promoters were convicted, although he stressed that it has now been this government that has pardoned them with the amnesty law.
Gerardo Pisarello, to add, regretted that Santamaría thus encompassed “in the slogan of the governments of the PP of Lie and the Ignorance of State” and that it was happy to apply a “155 to the ways of Manuel Fraga”, the pattern and founder of AP, the previous brand of the PP. Manuel Arribas, from the PSOE, tried unsuccessfully to link the exit of Santamaría’s policy and his signing for the fighter’s office with contracts that Villarejo would have enjoyed with that firm. The State’s lawyer in leaves Santamaría argued in favor of being able to devote himself to her profession without now scrutinizing.
From Vox and the PP they did not ask questions and agreed to disqualify the commission very thick. Ignacio Gil Lázaro, of the Ultra Formation, insisted on his theory that it is a “patraña and waste of time to dizzy the partridge” and hide “the generalized corruption and moral misery of the government of Sánchez” although he left to appear in the newspaper of sessions notable differences with the non -management of Rajoy of the process Catalan separatist. Rafael Hernando, from the PP, shot to blame everything that happens or not in Spain to Pedro Sánchez and among those pellets put the pandemic, the Dana, the sanitary balls, the political signings of the revolving doors, the blackout, the trains, “Las Barganas and ladies” by José Luis Ábalos and even the citizen consultation announced on the OPA to the Sabadell. Santamaría just smiled and concluded: “Thank you very much.”
