Rajoy knew nothing about Operation Catalunya (nor about Gürtel, nor about the Kitchen, nor about the Bárcenas envelopes)

Madrid"I have no knowledge of the existence of a so-called Catalunya operation," Mariano Rajoy said in a statement to the commission investigating the dirty war against the independence movement in Congress. The former president of the Spanish government and the PP has denied being aware of anything, as he did when he was questioned as a witness in the Gürtel trial in the summer of 2017, and in the lower house in another commission of inquiry into Operation Kitchen at the end of 2021. "I cannot become a commentary. I have no business here, although I am very comfortable," he stressed in his particular style.

After an appearance of more than three hours, full of evasions, it was Jorge Fernández Díaz's turn. The former Minister of the Interior between 2011 and 2016 has followed the path forged by Rajoy and has denied the existence of the operation, which he has described as an "invention". "I can assure you that during my mandate in the ministry I never heard of Operation Catalunya, never," he said. Although Fernández Díaz has "categorically" denied that "politically" any "plan was designed to get rid of the leaders of the Proceso", he has admitted that it is possible that it occurred. "some illegal actions" by some agents, without being "authorised or promoted" and "for whatever reasons". The former minister has distanced himself from the situation and has also exonerated the former Spanish president. "Rajoy never gave me an order that was illegal," he said.

According to the former Spanish Prime Minister, the only operation in Catalonia that he is aware of is "the attempt to liquidate a State with more than five centuries of history." Rajoy repeatedly boasted of having "stopped" it. The speaker took the opportunity to promote his book, A better Spain, which he has brought to the commission, and which he has clung to in order to affirm that the only events in which he has participated are those he relates. That is, how he acted in Catalonia through the application of article 155 in the face of "actions that violated the law and the Constitution by some political leaders." However, he has distanced himself from the actions of the so-called patriotic police"I have no knowledge of any paramilitary plot," he insisted.

Tense appearance

Rajoy appeared accompanied by fifteen PP deputies – a larger representation than usual in this type of body – the vast majority of whom left when it was Fernández Díaz's turn. During the questioning of the PSOE, Podemos, EH Bildu and ERC there were moments of tension when deputies Manuel Arribas, Ione Belarra – whom Rajoy has denied having ordered an investigation into deputies of the purple party–, Jon Iñarritu and Gabriel Rufián have put pressure on him. "How many insults, lies and ignominy for seven votes," complained Rajoy in response to the socialists' questions about the former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, whom the former president reiterated that he does not know, and about who is the M. Rajoy who appears in the papers of Luis Bárcenas, the former treasurer of the PP. The popular deputies responded with disqualifications and comments that interrupted the questions on numerous occasions and provoked some calls to order from the presidency of the commission. "You are very annoying," the republican spokesman reproached them.

"I want to talk about Andorra"

Rajoy, who has an investigation opened to the Andorran justice system The former president, who allegedly put pressure on the management of the Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA) – where the Pujol family had accounts – has shown great interest in discussing this issue. "Was this intense relationship trying to dig up dirt on pro-independence politicians or their relatives?" asked the deputy Josep Pagès, about the contacts between 2012 and 2015 between his government and the authorities of the neighbouring country. The former president has denied having spoken, during the official trip he made to Andorra in January 2015, about the current accounts of specific people and has assured that he has never threatened anyone. "It is not my style, I have other defects," he asserted. "Vito Corleone never went to threaten anyone. You send your commissioners," replied Rufián.

In an appearance three weeks ago in the same commission, the former BPA delegate councilor, Joan Pau Miquel, denounced "coercion and threats" from the patriotic police and pointed directly at the former Minister of the Interior for having launched a "lawfare" (judicial war) against the entity and its Spanish subsidiary, Banco Madrid, which led to "an unfair bank intervention." Rajoy has distanced himself from that operation. "These are decisions of the Bank of Spain, the Andorran regulator and the courts," he argued. Fernández Díaz, accompanied by his lawyer because he is being prosecuted by the Kitchen in the National Court, has done the same. "I have had nothing to do with it [...] The BPA was not on my agenda," he said hours later. The former minister is also being investigated by the Andorran judge herself.

He does not recognise himself in the audios

"I will deny, even under torture, that this meeting ever took place," said the former minister in a meeting with Villarejo and the former deputy director of operations of the National Police, Eugenio Pino, from which the audio was made public. It was December 16, 2012, and the Catalan politician demanded that his interlocutors focus their persecution on the president of the Generalitat at that time, Artur Mas. "I do not recognize this," he said, and pointed to a hypothetical manipulation of the recordings in which he is identified. Fernández Díaz has assured that he has never met with the former commissioner. "You will end up taking this death on yourself and you know it," warned the socialist spokesman in the commission, reminding him that the prosecution is asking for fifteen years in prison for the spying against Bárcenas, which will come to trial in a year and a half, and in which, however, Rajoy is a witness.