Salou, the only Catalan city in the Leire Díez case file
The City Council hired 'Crónica Libre' for advertising and the council's head of communication was the correspondent for the digital newspaper
BarcelonaThe Catalan socialists deny any relationship with the media Crónica Libre, the supposed informative "instrument" of Leire Díez's plot in the PSOE. The collaborator and shareholder of the newspaper directed by the late Patricia López, operated under the leadership of the then organization secretary Santos Cerdán, according to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. There is no trace in the summary of a relationship between the PSC and the plot – although the UCO does not rule it out – and only a specific link with a town hall governed by the socialists. The municipal government of Salou, headed by the PSC-Sumem coalition, paid for an advertising campaign to Crónica Libre.
The contract was made in January 2024, a little more than six months after the municipal elections, with the objective – they explain from the council – of promoting the city within the framework of the Fitur fair. 726 euros in advertising for a mega-banner on the main page of the website and the creation of two articles. This is not, however, the only link of the town hall with Crónica Libre: the director of communication of the council is the journalist Ricard Checa, who was precisely a correspondent for the digital media. The government team, however, denies that this had anything to do with it and justifies the relationship by an "adequate" advertising campaign.
"At the indication of Ricard Checa, we are sending you the banner related to the campaign that we will present tomorrow, Tuesday, in Madrid, Salou always surprises", explains an email from January 22, 2024, to which ARA has had access. The proposal comes from December 21, 2023, when the founding partner and deputy director of Crónica Libre, Patricia Espinar, sent a proposal to the town hall to offer a "mega-banner", "the most prominent", always in a fixed position on the website and "at the top". Already on December 14, 2023, Espinar writes to the communication department of the council to send them an advertising proposal about the city's "brand", and highlights that this media would have "more than 200,000 readers" and that they lead "pure investigation".
The City Council responds
L'ARA has contacted Checa, who assures that he has read the judicial resolutions and the UCO reports, and refers to a written response from the City Council. The communication cabinet has replied to this newspaper and has pointed out that in December 2023 the deputy director of Crónica Libre contacted the Salou City Council to present an advertising proposal coinciding with the municipality's participation in Fitur [Tourism Fair] 2024. The proposal, with an amount of 600 euros plus VAT, "was one of the many promotional and dissemination actions that the City Council usually carries out in Madrid", "aimed at the public and the Madrid market", along with other media in the capital of the State. For this reason, it was framed within the tourist promotion campaigns that were carried out for the fair.
Despite the coincidence in Checa's hiring case, they emphatically assure that the fact that he was a correspondent for the newspaper has nothing to do with it. "It is true that the medium was known because Ricard had previously collaborated from Catalonia, but he stopped doing so in April 2023, many months before this advertising proposal was received and before he took up the position of head of communication and press", they point out. And they add that "the decision to hire this campaign was made exclusively within the framework of Salou's tourist promotion actions during Fitur" for a newspaper with an approximate audience of 200,000 readers. The truth is that this audience cannot be corroborated because it is not audited by the Office for the Justification of Diffusion (OJD) and it is not possible to know if it refers to unique daily users, monthly users or simply visits – in figures that are modest for a national generalist –. "The decision was based on objective promotion criteria, such as the medium's reach, the number of readers and the potential audience it was aimed at" with "a very affordable cost", they insist from Salou.
The City Council also makes it clear that it "had no knowledge" that the medium was part of the gears of the alleged plot and that the council "has never had any contact with Ms. Leire Díez".
"Salou always surprises", by Ángel Marino, is the title of the article published on January 29, 2024, –without specifying that it is advertising– which highlights that the city goes "beyond the typical sun and beach holidays". "Salou presents its tourist proposal for 2024 with the intention of surprising", by Julián Castro, on January 23, 2024, was the second piece. At the moment, the one who has raised their voice about this hiring is Vox, following the news from ARA, and the party led by Anabel Rodríguez in the council has studied it legally because it "sees enough indications to take legal action", which, in fact, they are finalizing.