The life of Sánchez-Camacho and Cospedal in the post-trial process

MadridPerhaps many Catalans didn't remember the histrionic nature of Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, now that it's been eight years since she ceased to be the leader of the Catalan People's Party (PP) and has continued her political career in the background in Madrid. Rumor has it that services rendered in the Catalonia operation are rewarded. Her appearance this Monday before the Congressional inquiry committee served to refresh memories and revive heated debates, with the volume turned up very high. "Don't call me," Camacho told Podemos MP Martina Velarde. "You're the one calling!" she retorted. The spokespersons for Junts and ERC—two parties fiercely opposed to each other in Madrid today—Josep Pagès and Pilar Vallugera, tried to give each other advice to unsettle Sánchez-Camacho, who ended up driving them crazy. "You didn't come to scold me or insult me. It's embarrassing how you treated my colleagues," Vallugera warned her.

Sánchez-Camacho showed that he has not abandoned political bickering.She was a member of Congress during the legislature following Pedro Sánchez's vote of no confidence in Mariano Rajoy, a member of the board, and later a senator by regional appointment in the Madrid Assembly. This is her third term in office, and sources from Más Madrid describe her as the deputy senior Isabel Díaz Ayuso's Catalan counterpart, although the PP claims she is a low-profile deputy. She primarily focuses on labor issues—her specialty as a Social Security lawyer—and does not act as a spokesperson for more political issues and those linked to Catalonia, which are reserved for Ayuso's inner circle, who has sought to rejuvenate the front row of the Conservative bloc in the Madrid Assembly with people she trusts.

This does not mean that Sánchez-Camacho does not take advantage of the few speaking slots she has in plenary sessions. "I left Catalonia so as not to pay for the independence party, and now they'll force me to pay for it here," she complained less than a week ago in the last session of the Madrid chamber, referring to the Spanish government's debt forgiveness for the autonomous communities. "They are subjecting the country to the worst tariff: that of pro-independence blackmail," she exclaimed. In 2013, while collaborating with former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo on Operation Catalunya, Sánchez-Camacho, as leader of the Catalan People's Party (PP), told Génova that a reform of regional financing was necessary to guarantee the principle of ordinality, i.e., the same thing that ERC and the PSC have now agreed upon.

"My sister"

At that moment, the one calling the shots at the PP headquarters was María Dolores de Cospedal, whom Sánchez-Camacho referred to as her sister in an audio recording linked to the dirty war against the independence movement. It's no surprise, then, that in their appearances on Monday, they used the same excuse to evade their involvement in Operation Catalunya: that the published conversations that expose them may be "edited" and "manipulated" and, therefore, cannot be considered credible. Each with her own style, and although Cospedal has since retired from politics, both remained faithful to their acronyms. Sánchez-Camacho was tempted to speak Catalan and apologized when a word slipped out, and the former Defense Minister, using the excuse that she couldn't quite hear the simultaneous translation, asked the Junts MP if she could speak in Spanish. I saw that he speaks it very well when he read my interview.", he stated.

Cospedal, who lost the PP primaries in 2018 to Pablo Casado and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, has been directing the Institute of Political Leadership since 2023, which seeks to "contribute to moderation in the politics of presentation with the politics of presentation with the politics of presentation weeks had as Star guest: former Spanish President Felipe González.