The director of the Civil Guard distances herself from the Leire case: "I have never participated in any conspiracy against the UCO"

Madrid"Never ever". And so on, and so on. The Director General of the Civil Guard, who appears splashed in the Leire Díez case summary, has flatly and unequivocally denied that she intervened in any way in maneuvers to "obstruct" judicial proceedings being investigated by the National Court. "I have never participated in any plot or conspiracy against the UCO, I have never participated in any smear campaign against the UCO, and I have never taken any measure against any UCO agent," Mercedes González proclaimed vehemently as soon as her appearance began before the Senate Interior Committee, convened by the PP's absolute majority. "I have never persecuted my own because they are my family," she added later. "I am not involved in any sewer," she even said. To defend herself, she boasted that there had been "no complaint" from UCO agents who felt threatened or coerced, and after two and a half hours, she concluded her statement with a proclamation: "Every day I have to tell myself that I have done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the fury eager to achieve destruction and desolation will roar.

Mercedes González underlined that, at all times, she has respected "immaculately and exquisitely" the work of all the investigators of the armed institute, denied having "slowed down" any investigation or having attempted an "intrusion" or "interference" in their work, and stressed that she has never met with anyone to inquire about investigations as a sign of respect for their "necessary independence and neutrality." At the end of her first statement, she also took the opportunity to apologize: "I would never do anything to harm the agents. Therefore, I deeply regret that the corps has been affected, I want to express my most sincere apologies." At another point, she revealed that three days after the audio in which Leire Díez was heard saying she wanted "dead" Antonio Balas – the head of the economic crime department of the UCO – was leaked, she met with the agent and the high command of the Civil Guard: she showed them her support and, face to face, "expressly" acknowledged that she knew Leire Díez and that she had "seen her" on "occasion."

They kept in touch

One of the points that the director of the Civil Guard has not clarified and that both the PP and Vox have reproached her for is why and in what sense she remained in contact – through messages – with Leire Díez when she was already aware of the maneuvers that the so-called plumber of the PSOE had allegedly instigated. The key date is May 8, 2025: the DAO informed the head of the judicial police that Mercedes González was already aware of the internal investigation that had been launched into Leire Díez's actions. Despite the questions, the director of the Civil Guard has not specified exactly when she found out.

The next day, El Confidencial published a news story about Koldo García that led to a conversation between Leire Díez and Leticia de la Hoz, the lawyer for José Luis Ábalos's former advisor. The former PSOE militant told her that she had just sent the link to the director of the Civil Guard: "I've just risked a lunch with Mercedes that the leaks are coming from the UCO," she later wrote. Within 48 hours, after El Mundo had begun to publicize the messages between Ábalos and Pedro Sánchez, the director of the Civil Guard activated the automatic deletion of messages every 24 hours in the conversation with Leire Díez. Furthermore, the UCO maintains that a notification that appeared there is "compatible" with having "deleted a previous conversation".

Mercedes González has tiptoed around this extreme. She has limited herself to attributing it to a "coincidence" and has asked for "a little common sense." "There is a message that supposedly someone tells someone else, 'I sent it to Mercedes and I bet a lunch,' when everyone knows I don't drink coffee and I don't eat," she said. But the opposition has asked her for explanations. On behalf of the PP, Luis Santamaría asked her if she continued sending messages with Leire Díez "on the orders" of Pedro Sánchez and reproached her for having "chosen not to answer" and "painting the worlds of Yupi." Paloma Gómez, a senator from Vox, criticized that, knowing the "gravity of the internal betrayal," she decided to "continue feeding the umbilical cord that connected her directly" with the then PSOE militant.

Despite everything, Moncloa maintains its support because it considers that she "has done nothing improper." Sources from the engine room of the Spanish government believe that the scandal "is not proportional to the facts" and criticize that there is an "excessive dramatization of the whole thing." Early on, the number two of the PP, Miguel Tellado, demanded her resignation because he believes it is "unworthy" of the position.

"A simple get-to-know-you"

Mercedes González also recounted how she met Leire Díez. It was when the former was the Spanish government's delegate in the Community of Madrid and the latter was working as director of institutional relations for Correos. Later, when she was appointed Director General of the Guardia Civil, the PSOE plumber contacted her to ask her to meet. Leire Díez introduced herself as a freelance journalist without specifying where she worked: "She didn't talk to me about investigations, it was a simple initial contact." The Director General of the Guardia Civil has framed the meetings as a coffee – which they had in a café near the Directorate General of the Guardia Civil and never in her office – and has denied that they reached the category of meeting. She also wanted to make it clear that Leire Díez "never" asked her to "neither stop nor hinder" any investigation by the Guardia Civil.