"Is it normal that...?" The fruitless interrogation of the PSOE president
MadridIs it normal for the PSOE to have 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 commission have asked the president of the PSOE, 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 already three sentences for 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 mounting a war against judges and prosecutors on behalf of Santos Cerdán, the senators have used the commission 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 commission. "I recommend you a higher level of vigilance of what is happening at the Ferraz headquarters. My recommendation is that you look with more diligence," Pelayo concluded, who went so far as to predict the disappearance of the PSOE. "Taller towers have fallen than I have contributed to bringing 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 before the Audiencia Nacional last week at the Audiencia Nacional. The president of the PSOE has 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 as the PP and Vox senators have suggested. "I would not say I had a deep friendship," she described, and to exemplify this she said that in ten years she had seen her about ten times. She did, however, have an "amicable" 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 mainly dedicated to Congress, where she chairs the commission for 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'm telling the truth," replied the PSOE president.
Narbona's account goes through three fronts: that she had a cordial relationship with Leire Díez and that's why she responded to messages; that Santos Cerdán was a kind of omnipotent power who had the capacity to do and undo without the knowledge of the PSOE executive and that it was he who, allegedly, decided to work with Díez to destabilize the PSOE's judicial cases; and that there is no reason to indict the party, but rather, if applicable, there are reasons to investigate people who have held responsibilities in the organization. And did Pedro Sánchez, PSOE general secretary, know anything about it? He says no and Narbona believes him: "I would put my hand in the fire for him."
