My name is Mariano Rajoy, as everyone knows, and afterwards everyone calls me as they want

San Fernando de HenaresNine years after testifying in the Gürtel case, Mariano Rajoy has returned to the National Court to testify in the Kitchen case. He arrived at San Fernando de Henares at 9:40 a.m. by car and accessed the judicial premises through the parking lot. He responded for thirty minutes, in a statement that began with monosyllabic answers and evasiveness and ended with three arguments distancing himself from the facts and lending a hand to the defenses of the accused. The star phrase came right at the beginning, during the questioning by the PSOE lawyer, who asked him if he was M. Rajoy, L'Asturià or El Barbes: "My name is Mariano Rajoy, as everyone knows, and then everyone calls me what they want, ask them". After this initial display, he dedicated himself to denying everything categorically. "Did you give Bárcenas an envelope with the remainder of the B fund? Did you put the last page of Bárcenas's papers in the shredder? Do you know that Bárcenas was pressured or intimidated by order of party officials?", asked the PSOE lawyer. These are three questions that the former PP treasurer assured on Monday that he declared as a witness. "Absolutely false", Rajoy limited himself to answering on all three occasions.

Later, Podem's lawyer asked him if he feared that Luis Bárcenas might have "compromising recordings" of him or someone from the party. Three days ago, the former PP treasurer said he had an audio recording of Rajoy and an audio recording of Javier Arenas, who had been number two for the Popular Party under José María Aznar. "My peace of mind was total and absolute," Rajoy replied. "I don't think there were any. If there were, he would have made them public as he made many other documents public," he added.

Finally, he denied that there was "any political operation" to spy on Bárcenas or steal information from him, but rather a "police operation" with the objective of "finding the money" of the former PP treasurer and "finding out who his frontmen were," and stated that he was "convinced" that the police operation "fully adhered to the law." But he had no knowledge of it: "Neither the minister, nor the secretary of state, nor the president of the Spanish government is involved in police operations."

Cospedal asked Villarejo for help to know if the PP was being spied on

The other star of the day was María Dolores de Cospedal, who was the number two of the PP. She acknowledged having had a dozen meetings with José Manuel Villarejo that "were always at his initiative" and that they usually took place in his office on Génova street. She denied having made any "request" to him and said that she asked him "questions". "Receiving him and listening to him was my obligation," she justified. What did they talk about? Despite the audios that prove how they pulled the strings within the Catalunya operation, she stated that they talked about "leaks" from a summary that were "detrimental" to Rita Barberá – who was the mayor of Valencia and "a very good friend" of hers – and about the "more than well-founded suspicion" that the Popular Party members were "spied on, followed, or observed" by "someone who had to do" with the Ministry of the Interior, which at that time was led by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

Beyond that, Cospedal has denied being informed of the alleged espionage against Luis Bárcenas or the recruitment as a confidential informant of the party's former treasurer's driver, Sergio Ríos. "It is neither known to me nor was it normal for it to be known to me. I had nothing to do with the Ministry of the Interior," she responded. "I even doubt that was the case," she went on to say at another point. On the other hand, she presented former minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, the main accused in the Kitchen case, as a "straight and upright" person who "has suffered a lot." And, in a way, she took the opportunity to amend herself for having associated with Villarejo: "If we all had a crystal ball, we would surely act differently. [...] Looking back, things are different.

Cospedal was investigated in this case for two months, but Judge Manuel García-Castellón eventually cleared her because her participation in the operation was not "duly justified" and referred to the right of assembly: "No person can be suspected of any crime for having maintained contact or having met with José Manuel Villarejo".

The Bárcenas boxes in Genoa

An element that has appeared in the statements of Rajoy and Cospedal has been the boxes that Bárcenas left in his office at the PP headquarters on Calle Génova when they kicked him out of the party. He also recounted this episode and explained that his driver, Sergio Ríos, collected all the boxes with his papers and took them to the restoration workshop that his wife had. Now Rajoy and Cospedal have seized upon the time that the documentation remained in Génova to excuse themselves. "The documents with which he later threatened were in the party headquarters for two months. If we had wanted to see them, look... I found it very striking," explained the former Spanish government president. And Cospedal said there were 27 boxes. She informed the party's former treasurer's lawyer that they needed to be collected. "If they don't come to get them, you can tell [Bárcenas] that I'll put it all out on the street," she recalled saying due to the delay. The PP banned Bárcenas from Génova in January 2013, and the boxes were not taken until March 14.

Once again, the two interrogations have been filled with interruptions from the president of the court, Teresa Palacios, to the questions of the PSOE lawyer. "Today I will protest everything," she warned when she had been questioning Mariano Rajoy for only a few minutes. And the judge got angry. Later, they also clashed talking about Rita Barberà. "Unfortunately dead. [...] Who was also part of the Gürtel," said Gloria de Pascual. "That comment is unnecessary from someone who is dead," the magistrate reproached her.