Sánchez-Camacho presents himself in Congress as a victim of the "real Operation Catalonia."

Madrid / BarcelonaDeclining to acknowledge the authenticity of the audio recordings and claiming they were manipulated and edited. This has been the joint strategy of former PP deputy leader María Dolores de Cospedal and former PP leader in Catalonia Alícia Sánchez-Camacho to evade the new evidence linking them to Operation Catalunya. This Monday, precisely, The world on RAC1 has published a conversation the former Defense Minister had with former Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo in September 2014, in which they openly discussed the dirty war against the independence movement. "I don't remember talking about Catalonia with Villarejo," Cospedal asserted during her appearance before the Congressional commission of inquiry. Far from shedding light on the maneuvers against leaders of the Process, Sánchez-Camacho attempted to spin the narrative: she presented herself as a "second-class citizen" and a victim of "persecution" that "forced her to leave the territory she loved." "This is the real Operation Catalonia," she criticized.

Sánchez-Camacho's appearance was very tense, especially with the spokespersons for ERC and Junts. "You are the repressors! This is as far as we could go!" complained Junta member Josep Pagès. The former president of the Catalan People's Party (PP)—she was president until shortly before the October 1st referendum—has not acted as she once did, and she took this opportunity to express her complete rejection of the independence project and Operation Catalunya. "It's an absolute fabrication and a construct that fuels their victimhood. They live in their own alternative world," she repeated, even arguing with Republican MP Pilar Vallugera over who had the better "ethical and moral standing." Sánchez-Camacho, who had not commented until Monday on all the information that has emerged in recent years about her involvement in the dirty war, shielded herself by saying that all the complaints filed against her have been dismissed. Vallugera pointed out that since it was revealed that the PP could control the second chamber "through the back door," the Supreme Court's rulings must be taken into account.

Sánchez-Camacho's combative tone was complemented by Cospedal's sober responses, but both agreed in discrediting the audio recordings that expose them. "I trust my memory more than information or transcripts of conversations that I don't know if they've been manipulated, or recordings whose custody I don't know," Cospedal replied. "I will not assume any purported conclusions that may be drawn as real and truthful," she insisted repeatedly, and denied that she put Villarejo and Sánchez-Camacho in contact. "I do not recognize audio recordings that I don't know how they came about, how they've been manipulated, what editing... I would only recognize them in a judicial proceeding under judicial custody," added the now PP deputy to the Madrid Assembly, who downgraded the conversation to an exchange of "general opinions." provide the former commissioner with a list of people more or less linked to sovereignty.

In the conversation revealed this Monday, which allegedly took place at the Génova headquarters shortly before the November 9, 2014 referendum, Cospedal and Villarejo discuss payments to informants such as Vicky Álvarez, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's ex-partner, and pressure on judges at Ar's. Villarejo boasts of having "changed the history of Catalonia" with the information provided to him by both Cospedal and Sánchez-Camacho, whom he describes as "key" to his efforts against the independence movement. "From 62 to 50," the commissioner claims, supposedly regarding the fall of CiU deputies in the 2012 elections. And "nothing will happen from a judicial point of view because deep down everyone agrees that this had to be done" to stop the independence movement, former president Artur Mas told RAC1.

Villarejo, who Cospedal was already on their agendas As the supervisor and facilitator of Operation Catalunya, she also boasts that the movements are advancing without anyone noticing. "Because the three of us who could have explained it haven't explained it," Cospedal replies, who, however, denied to the commission "the existence of Operation Catalunya" or having "commissioned anything," as they also did a few days ago. Former Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández DíazThe former deputy leader of the People's Party (PP), who was once investigated in the Kitchen case involving the theft of information compromising his party from former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, asserted that "the political police is a fictitious creation."

Another relevant detail that appears in the recordings released this Monday is the possibility that Cospedal diverted funds from the public company Enresa, which contained radioactive materials, to return €100,000 to Villarejo, which she allegedly paid to businessman Javier de la Rosa in exchange for information against Convergència. "I'll speak with Paco Gil Ortega and tell him you'll call him, he's the president of the company [Enresa]. I won't forget that. I'll do it, okay?" says the woman who would become Minister of Defense two years later. In this regard, Cospedal has also denied the validity of the audio recordings, to the despair of the deputies. In fact, representatives of ERC, Junts, and EH Bildu have asked the committee's board to consider referring Cospedal's witness to the Prosecutor's Office in case she lied and, therefore, committed a crime.