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Spain’s ex-PM Rajoy denies knowledge of spying affair

Spain's former conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday denied any knowledge of an alleged spying operation inside his own party.

Published: 14 December 2021 08:50 CET
A combination of two file pictures shows Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the Moncloa palace in Madrid on April 16, 2013 and Former PP (Popular Party)'s treasurer Luis Barcenas leaving the anti-corruption prosecuting office in Madrid on February 6, 2013. Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appears before parliamentary committee over alleged espionage case (Kitchen case) on December 13, 2021. Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP
A combination of two file pictures shows Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the Moncloa palace in Madrid on April 16, 2013 and Former PP (Popular Party)'s treasurer Luis Barcenas leaving the anti-corruption prosecuting office in Madrid on February 6, 2013. Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appears before parliamentary committee over alleged espionage case (Kitchen case) on December 13, 2021. Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP

Rajoy was answering questions from a parliamentary committee investigating accusations that officials inside Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) launched a spying operation on a senior party official.

“I never had any knowledge of the existence of this operation…, so I gave instructions on something I knew nothing about,” he said.

“I don’t know what they were looking for.”

The alleged operation targeted former treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, who at the time was at the centre of a probe into a kickbacks scheme within the party. Barcenas was later jailed for 33 years over that affair.

The aim of the alleged spying was to find out what dirt Bárcenas had on party officials.

Investigators are investigating the possibility that the alleged operation might have been led by Jorge Fernandez Díaz, who at the time served as Rajoy’s interior minister.

Pressed by deputies on the committee, Rajoy challenged them to present any evidence implicating his former minister.

‘Operation Kitchen’

The probe into the so-called “Operation Kitchen” spying affair is one of several opened after the arrest of ex-police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo, who for years secretly recorded conversations with top political and business figures in order to smear them.

“I don’t know Mr Villarejo,…” Rajoy, who served as prime minister between 2011 and 2018, told the committee. “I have never spoken to him.

One conversation in the case files — between Villarejo and the former treasurer Bárcenas — appeared to suggest that they had compromising material on Rajoy himself.

“I really don’t care what Mr Bárcenas and Mr Villarejo might have said about me,” said Rajoy.

Both men had had serious problems in the courts, he pointed out, and so they defended themselves as they saw fit — including lying.

Barcenas was at the heart of the so-called “Guertel” affair, which involved the illegal financing of the Popular Party.

After he was convicted in May 2018, Rajoy’s government was brought down in a no-confidence vote a few days later.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his radical-left ally Podemos successfully pushed for the parliamentary investigation into the alleged spying operation inside the Popular Party.

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POLITICS

Spain’s PM may quit over wife’s corruption probe

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Wednesday he was weighing the possibility of resigning after a court opened an investigation into his wife Begoña Gómez on suspicion of graft.

Published: 24 April 2024 21:43 CEST
Spain's PM may quit over wife's corruption probe

“I need to stop and think” in order to decide “whether I should continue to head the government or whether I should give up this honour,” he wrote in a letter posted on X, formerly Twitter.

He added that he would announce his decision on Monday and suspend his schedule until then.

A Madrid court said earlier on Wednesday that it had “opened an investigation into Begoña Gómez for the alleged offence of influence peddling and corruption” in response to a complaint by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), an anti-corruption pressure group whose leader is linked to the far right.

The court statement came several hours after online news site El Confidencial said investigators were probing Gómez’s ties to several private companies that received government funding or won public contracts.

The site said the probe was linked to the alleged ties which Gómez had with Spanish tourism group Globalia, which owns Air Europa.

It said she had twice met with Javier Hidalgo, Globalia’s CEO at the time, when the carrier was in talks with the government to secure a huge bailout after it was badly hit by the plunge in air traffic due to the Covid-19 crisis.

At the time, Gómez was running IE Africa Center, a foundation linked to Madrid’s Instituto de Empresa (IE) business school, a position she left in 2022.

The announcement sparked an angry backlash from the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP), which has harangued Sánchez for months about his wife’s alleged business ties.

But Socialist premier Sánchez, in office since 2018, said in his letter that the complaint was based on “non-existent” facts and was part of a campaign of “harassment” against his wife led by “ultraconservative” media and supported by the conservative and far-right opposition.

“I am not naïve. I am aware that they are bringing charges against Begoña, not because she’s done anything illegal, because they know full well that’s not true, but because she’s my wife,” he added.

PROFILE: Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, a risk-taker with a flair for political gambles

Talks during airline bailout

El Confidencial said IE Africa Center had “signed a sponsorship agreement with Globalia in 2020” and that Gomez had also held a private meeting with Hidalgo at the company’s offices.

“At the same time Globalia was negotiating a multi-million-euro bailout with the government,” it noted.

Last month, Globalia told El Confidencial that Hidalgo and Gómez had met at its Madrid offices on June 24 and July 16.

Between those dates, Sánchez’s government on July 3rd announced the creation of a €10-billion fund to bail out strategic firms worst hit by Covid.

Four months later, his cabinet approved a 475-million-euro lifeline for Air Europa, the first Spanish company to tap the funds.

Investigators are also looking into two letters of support Gomez allegedly provided for a joint venture bidding for a public contract, El Confidencial said.

The joint venture’s main shareholder was consultant Carlos Barrabes, who has ties to the department run by Gómez at Madrid’s Complutense University.

It won the contract, beating 20 rivals, and was awarded €10.2 million, it said.

‘Trumpesque practices’

Manos Limpias, which filed the complaint, is headed by lawyer Miguel Bernad.

Bernad was initially sentenced to four years behind bars in 2021 over a scheme to extort major firms, but last month was acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.

Questioned in Wednesday’s parliamentary session about the El Confidencial story, Sanchez told lawmakers: “Despite everything, I still believe in Spain’s justice system.”

Senior PP official Ester Muñoz said it was “imperative” he explain.

“His family is being investigated by the court… it is important enough that the prime minister explains himself to the Spanish people.”

In a parliamentary session last month, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo had warned Sánchez there would be an investigation.

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“If you refuse to give explanations again… there will be a specific investigation into matters affecting those closest to you, a parliamentary probe for sure, and a judicial one if necessary.”

But Sanchez’s deputy, Budget Minister María Jesus Montero, hit back.

“They are using a spurious complaint by a far-right organisation to defame and slander the prime minister,” she said.

“We will not let these Trumpesque practices undermine Spain’s democracy.”

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