has denied this Thursday before the court that is trying him for the alleged irregularities in the awarding of positions in the Badajoz Provincial Council to him in 2017 and to a friend of his in 2023 that he had the capacity to “influence anything.” Sánchez, whose statement only lasted 10 minutes when answering only the questions of his defense lawyer, has highlighted the work he did to face the accusations of absenteeism from work that the popular accusations use as an indication against him in the accusations of influence peddling and prevarication for which they ask for three years in prison.
Pedro Sánchez’s relative, who on numerous occasions has answered with monosyllables, has also denied that he had any participation in the change in the nomenclature of his position, which went from being coordinator of the two conservatories in the province to directing the Performing Arts Office of the public body. His lawyer has not asked him any questions about what the incident was like. At the end of the morning session, and after the accusations asked the court to play the video of the statements that Sánchez’s brother made before Judge Beatriz Biedma, instructor of the house, considering that he had fallen into contradictions with his testimony this Thursday and because, precisely, he had not declared anything about the award of his place in 2017.
Emilio Cortés, David Sánchez’s defender, has opposed the reproduction of these images at the hearing and in his argument for this he has explained why he has not questioned the president’s brother about his initial appointment. As he explained to the court, he considers that the decision of the magistrates to declare one of the crimes of which he was accused ―that of accepting an illegal appointment, the mildest one, only punishable by a fine― time-barred at the beginning of the hearing, meant in his opinion the dismissal in practice of the rest of the accusations regarding the specific fact of his appointment and that, therefore, he should not testify about it. If his approach is accepted, the sentence he would face would be reduced from three years to one and a half. The court has announced that this afternoon it will decide on this and other issues that the parties have raised.
David Sánchez has taken advantage of his appearance before the judge to amend one of his statements before Judge Beatriz Biedma, investigator of the case, in which he seemed not to know where his workplace was physically located. To this end, he detailed that when he joined the position, in 2017, “an office was set up in the Higher Conservatory; then that office, during the pandemic period, was used for different activities.” He said that when he returned after the mobility restrictions due to Covid-19, the office was occupied by a colleague, so between 2023 and 2024 he made use of “common offices, enabled common spaces” until he was relocated to another “also common” space. In this sense, the president’s brother added that his position “was not understood as an office with a window or a physical building.”
03:58
The statements of Sánchez and Gallardo in 4 minutes
Regarding the change in the nomenclature of her position – which according to the investigating judge supposedly served to accommodate the work to her personal preferences – she indicated that she had no intervention – “I understand that it occurred due to the evolution of the position”, she said – and that at no time did she use any type of “influence”. He has also insisted that his functions went beyond the Young Opera program, and that they covered other types of activities such as workshops or exhibition projects in collaboration with museums.
Regarding the hiring of Luis Carrero, an official at the Moncloa Palace with whom he had a long friendship that made them call each other “little brother”, David Sánchez has tried to show as a “misunderstanding” the emails intercepted by the Civil Guard and in which both spoke of Carrero’s incorporation into a position in the deputation in October 2023, weeks before the position was formally announced. “As soon as you join, I want to spend at least a week here to serve as support,” the president’s brother wrote to him then. To which the then official of La Moncloa replied: “I have no news or calendar regarding the incorporation; the last thing he told me [Manuel] Candalija [director del área de Cultura, también en el banquillo] “It was throughout November.”
Regarding this email, his lawyer questioned him that it gave “the appearance that you knew who was going to be granted the position before the evaluation commission met.” Sánchez has said that he sent this email to his friend because he heard at the end of September 2023 “in the corridors” of the council that a reinforcement position was going to be created in the area of Culture and that he told him about it so that he would be attentive in case he was interested. “I do not have the ability to say anything, nor do I have administrative information about the status of that procedure,” he insisted. He has also denied that his friend’s incorporation into the deputation was intended to relieve him of work, since his duties required “technical training” in music that Carrero did not have.
