Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría "does not remember" anything related to the Kitchen

MadridAfter Mariano Rajoy and María Dolores de Cospedal testified as witnesses in the Kitchen case trial late last week, this Monday it is Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría's turn. The former Spanish government vice president's testimony is another of the highlights of the political testimonies in the oral hearing on the espionage of Luis Bárcenas, although unlike Cospedal, the former PP general secretary from 2008 to 2018, Sáenz de Santamaría has never been under investigation. With an impassive expression, Sáenz de Santamaría, who is the last witness of the first session of this week, has repeatedly stated throughout the interrogation that she "does not remember" anything related to the Kitchen. According to the former Spanish government vice president, she only became aware of the case through the press.

Another politician very close to the former Spanish government president testified just before her and also disassociated himself, claiming he had no interior portfolio. This is the case of Javier Arenas, a prominent People's Party leader during Rajoy's era and currently a senator with a position in Alberto Núñez Feijóo's People's Party leadership —as general secretary of the People's Party parliamentary group in the Senate.

The first witness of the day was Guillermo Bárcenas, son of the former PP treasurer against whom this “illegal police intelligence operation” was allegedly launched —according to the Prosecutor's indictment— with the intention of stealing information and evidence from Bárcenas that could incriminate popular leaders within the framework of the Gürtel case. Bárcenas' son has confirmed his father's version that incriminates Rajoy. According to Guillermo Bárcenas, in 2013, about a month before the popular former treasurer entered prison, his father explained to him that he had recorded a conversation with Rajoy about the PP's slush fund in the presence of Arenas. However, Guillermo Bárcenas said that he never got to hear it.

In his statement, Arenas has distanced himself from Bárcenas' alleged recordings and has denied having been aware that the PP was trying to find an audio of Rajoy among the documentation of the former PP treasurer. Just as the former Spanish president did, Arenas has lent a hand to the two main defendants. The popular leader has assured that both the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz and his former number two Francisco Martínez are "great professionals of public administration".