"Is it normal that...?" The vain interrogation of the PSOE president

MadridIs it normal for the PSOE to set up an office for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero? Is it normal for you not to know what Leire Díez told Santos Cerdán? Is it normal for you to receive a PSOE militant? These are just some of the questions that the senators of the Koldo case investigation committee have asked the PSOE president, Cristina Narbona. An interrogation of more than three hours that has turned out to be completely sterile, without any new conclusions —she has not provided any new element and has tried to answer briefly— and where, rather than questions, the right-wing senators have shown indignation about the Leire case, Zapatero, or the three rulings already made in the case of the Attorney General, Ábalos, and the brother of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. And it is that more than questions about the relationship between Narbona and Leire Díez, accused of orchestrating a war against judges and prosecutors at the behest of Santos Cerdán, the senators have used the committee to talk about the jewels of the former Spanish president, how Julio Martínez points to him, or the behavior of the already convicted José Luis Ábalos.

"What is the question?", Narbona snapped at the Vox senator Ángel Pelayo Gordillo, who also claimed the right to make "observations" in the committee. "I recommend greater vigilance regarding what is happening at Ferraz headquarters. My recommendation is that you look more diligently," Pelayo concluded, who even predicted the disappearance of the PSOE. "Taller towers have fallen than I have helped to bring down," he threatened.

Cristina Narbona was summoned this Wednesday to the Senate for her messages with Leire Díez, for which she was also called to testify last week at the National High Court last week at the National High Court. The PSOE president repeated the same version as before the judge: that Díez contacted her saying she had important information for the party and that she forwarded it to the then organization secretary, Santos Cerdán, because he had communication responsibilities. She heard nothing more until Cerdán himself, according to her, told her that what Leire Díez had conveyed was not relevant. "I am not Leire Díez's godmother," she stated, denying that she had a close relationship with her as the PP and Vox senators have suggested. "I would not say she was a close friend," she described, and to illustrate this, she said that in ten years they had met about ten times. She did, however, have an "amiable" relationship.

Narbona has presented herself, in the words of ERC senator Joan Queralt, as a "Chinese vase": without executive power in the PSOE and as a figure dedicated to organizing the debates of the party's federal committee and the formation's leadership. "My role in the PSOE has nothing to do with daily operations," Narbona has made clear, adding that hers is a representative position. In fact, she has pointed out that she goes to the Ferraz street headquarters very little because she is mostly dedicated to Congress, where she chairs the commission for the Ecological Transition.

All roads lead to Santos Cerdán

The toughest exchange was between Narbona and the PP representative, Francisco Martín Bernabé, who used a belligerent tone with the socialist. "She is acting like a textbook hypocrite," declared the popular politician. "I am telling the truth," replied the PSOE president.

Narbona's account focuses on three points: that she had a cordial relationship with Leire Díez and that's why she responded to her messages; that Santos Cerdán was a kind of omnipotent power who had the ability to do and undo without the knowledge of the PSOE executive and that it was he who, presumably, decided to work with Díez to destabilize the PSOE's judicial cases; and that there is no reason to impute the party, but rather, if applicable, there are reasons to investigate people who have held responsibilities in the organization. And Pedro Sánchez, Secretary General of the PSOE, knew anything about it? He says no and Narbona believes him: "I would put my hand in the fire for him".