The former minister who prayed to save Spain from the devil

BarcelonaIt does not matter that he is heard discussing with the then director of the Office Against Fraud of Catalonia about the need to bring out dirty laundry of the main pro-independence leaders. Nor does it matter that conversations with the ex-commissioner José Manuel Villarejo have transpired, openly talking about Operation Catalonia ("I will deny, even under torture, that this meeting took place", he said in the audios). Not even that there are messages with his number 2, certified by a notary, in which they talk about the Kitchen. For years, Jorge Fernández Díaz has played the role of the minister who knew nothing about what was happening around him. A defense strategy that he has followed to the letter this Thursday when he declared as the main investigated person in the trial about the espionage of the former treasurer of the PP, Luis Bárcenas.

A fervent devotee since God appeared to him in Las Vegas in 1991 and made him abandon a life where, according to himself, sin abounded, Jorge Fernández Díaz is, however, one of the political figures under permanent suspicion. Among other things, for lying. Born in Valladolid in 1950, although he lived in Catalonia from a very young age, his first steps in politics were hand in hand with Adolfo Suárez, first as civil governor of Oviedo and Barcelona and, later, as a candidate for the CDS in Catalonia in the 1982 elections. Before that, he had briefly been an industrial engineer. He was the second of ten siblings (one of them, Alberto, also dedicated to politics, in the PP) from a family "that lacked nothing and had nothing in excess," with a father who was a career military man who ended up being the deputy chief of the Barcelona Urban Guard. He married on October 17, 1975, the same day Franco was admitted to the Hospital de la Paz and never left, and he says that when the dictator died, he neither rejoiced nor was saddened.

His political career grew under the banner of the Popular Party, with whom he played practically all the roles (councilor, deputy, secretary of state) until he reached the Ministry of the Interior in Mariano Rajoy's first government (2011-2016). What was his role in the creation of the patriotic police? According to him, none. In fact, sitting in the Congress of Deputies in one of the investigation committees held in recent years, he even considered this parapolice structure an "invention" – widely documented – which included active and retired agents, informants, and even politicians, supported according to numerous sources by the state administration and financed with secret funds. La Kitchen is a derivative of this, and accusations claim that state resources were used to follow Bárcenas with the aim of stealing compromising documentation with the PP.

The shield of Christian faith

"There is neither an investigation unit nor has one been created into separatist politicians," he assured when he had not yet been heard to privately request that Artur Mas or Oriol Junqueras be investigated. Fernández Díaz said at the time that there were parties that "saw persecutions while they dreamed" and that resolving it was a matter that concerned "a psychiatrist" more than a minister. To resolve his problems, he, on the other hand, has taken refuge in faith (that of Opus Dei, specifically). And with the excuse of religion, he took on the commitment to "save Spain".

A mission that on June 17, 2015 took him to the Vatican to meet with the then emeritus Pope, Benedict XVI. A few days earlier, Fernández Díaz had written him a letter (with the official seal of the Ministry of the Interior) showing his concern for Spain's survival and in the meeting he asked him to pray for his country. Benedict XVI's response was recalled a few years later by Fernández Díaz himself: "He told me that the devil wants to destroy Spain for the services rendered to the church of Christ, the evangelization of America, and the role in the counter-reformation." "The devil attacks the best more," concluded the emeritus pope according to the ex-minister's version. But Benedict XVI gave him the keys to defeat the devil, which, probably in Fernández Díaz's mind, must have taken the form of the separatists: "Humility, prayer, suffering, and devotion to the Most Holy Trinity".

A year earlier, he had decorated the Virgin Mary with the Gold Medal for Police Merit as an honorary title and he has always felt protected by God. This is one of the reasons why, he assures, he overcame cancer in 2016 and a heart attack in 2018. In a memorable interview with La Vanguardia for the 2015 election campaign, Fernández Díaz explained that, in fact, he has a guardian angel. His name is Marcelo and at that time he helped him to park, among other small daily things.