The PP already activates the judicial route: asks to indict the PSOE in the Leire Díez case

MadridOnly twenty-four hours after the announcement of early elections, the PP has activated the judicial route against the PSOE. The populars have registered a document at the National Court demanding the indictment of the socialists for the crimes of illegal financing, bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, and embezzlement. They have done so as popular prosecution in the case being investigated by magistrate Santiago Pedraz regarding the alleged sewers of the PSOE, the so-called Leire Díez case. With this move, the populars launch another branch of their artillery against the socialists at the gates of the electoral campaign.

At the same time, Pedraz himself has made a move in this investigation with the decision to request information from the PSOE about the lawyers and consultants it hired between 2021 and 2025, as well as to summon as an investigated party on October 28th for a crime of document forgery Nervis Gerardo Villalobos, who was Deputy Minister of Energy in Venezuela under Hugo Chávezand who allegedly maneuvered with Díez. The woman known as the plumber of the PSOE allegedly made arrangements to obtain Spanish nationality for him through the Ministry of Justice, a procedure on which the judge is now focusing. It is not the only judicial front for Sánchez in which there have been movements this Tuesday. The National Court judge María Tardón, who is investigating the massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta, has asked the Ceuta president, Juan Jesús Vivas, to provide "urgently" the list of calls he made to Pedro Sánchez and his chief of staff, Diego Rubio, in the days prior to the crisis.

Thus, while the Spanish president intends to turn the elections into a referendum on housing, the PP is multiplying fronts –also mudslinging on social media– to try to dismantle the strategy of the Spanish prime minister. The popular spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, did not take long to denounce that the decrees approved by the Council of Ministers this Tuesday are merely a "performance" by Sánchez. In this sense, beyond the alleged corruption, the Popular Party members are trying to focus on other issues that they believe could hurt the socialist leader, such as the crisis in Ceuta and the situation of the internal economy. In a press conference at the lower house, Muñoz said that "Spaniards are living worse than four years ago." "Today it is much more difficult to buy or rent a home, fill the shopping cart or the gas tank, we pay more taxes, we have less security [...]. Spain has a worse quality of life since the arrival of Sánchez," she added.

In parallel, in the Senate, the PP, which has an absolute majority there, presented the gold medals of the upper house this morning to the presidents of Ceuta and Melilla, Juan Jesús Vivas and Juan José Imbroda. Alberto Núñez Feijóo attended the event, and he will travel to Ceuta this Wednesday in an attempt to focus attention on an issue from which the PP hopes to gain electoral profit. Popular Party sources from the autonomous city confirm that their cause will be one of the main focuses of the state campaign, an issue that mobilizes the right-wing electorate. In fact, the same sources believe that the massive entry of immigrants into Ceuta could become "the most powerful reason for Sánchez to stop being president." "The sovereignty of all of Spain is at stake," they insist.

The criminal narrative against the PSOE

In the document submitted to the National Court, the PP argues that the PSOE set in motion a "criminal organization" allegedly led by the former organization secretary Santos Cerdán to "protect the interests of the government and the party" in the face of ongoing judicial investigations. The conservatives advocate summoning the PSOE as a legal entity, in the capacity of being under investigation, arguing that Cerdán and other socialist officials were responsible and that the party financed these maneuvers. The PP thus fuels the idea that Sánchez could find himself even more cornered judicially, just as Feijóo stated on Monday when he asserted that the snap election was explained by the Spanish president's "fear" that new information might emerge regarding the web of judicial cases affecting him.

Along the same lines, Vox is also bringing out its judicial artillery against the PSOE and, within the framework of a lawsuit stemming from the Leire Díez case, has demanded that Sánchez, his brother, and the former leader of the Extremaduran PSOE testify as witnesses regarding alleged maneuvers against the judge who instructed the case against David Sánchez.