The president of the PSOE recognizes before the judge that in the Leire case there are "worrying indications"

MadridCristina Narbona has completely dissociated herself from the maneuvers that Leire Díez allegedly instigated to destabilize judicial cases around Pedro Sánchez. The president of the PSOE, who exchanged WhatsApp messages with the then socialist militant on the day the Spanish president began the five days of reflection, has made it clear that “he had no knowledge whatsoever” of the alleged plot being investigated by the National Court. He said this when questioned by journalists after a declaration as a witness under half an hour before Judge Santiago Pedraz. Leire Díez told him that she "knew facts that could be important" and she referred her to Santos Cerdán because he, as the party's organization secretary, was in charge of communication policy. According to what ARA has been able to learn, behind closed doors she said that Díez called her because she "wanted to collaborate and help" and had "useful information for the party." "I'm referring to information, not sewage," she clarified. Of course, she acknowledged that the Civil Guard's reports describe "worrying indications."

Later, Cristina Narbona asked the number three socialist how it had gone and he downplayed it: “He told me it hadn't contributed anything of interest.” But the one known as plumber of the PSOE insisted on it via WhatsApp, in the messages that appear in one of the Civil Guard's key reports. Leire Díez told him that it was necessary to "redirect" the attacks on the Spanish president and turn the matter around "like a glove". However, Narbona avoided interpreting her words: "I am completely unaware of what she meant or what she did afterwards", she said to the microphones. Two days after that conversation, Cerdán and Díez met –along with other people– in Ferraz in a meeting that was presumably the starting point for the maneuvers under suspicion. Instead, the two of them never spoke again. Inside the room, Narbona pointed out that they have only seen each other twice since 2020 and stated that she does not consider her a "friend".

During the interrogation, the PSOE president shifted responsibility to Santos Cerdán. In fact, it is the same strategy that the party has maintained in recent weeks: “She had all the powers to formalize the contracts she considered appropriate,” she replied when questioned about the invoices being investigated. And, at the request of the PP's lawyer, she reiterated that the organization secretary had “competencies” to authorize “without supervision” trips at the party's expense. She also acknowledged that the PSOE has not opened any internal investigation into all these matters. Finally, she recounted that she met Leire Díez in 2017, when she was a “simple militant” and served as press officer for the presidency of Cantabria.

Meetings with the right-hand man of the attorney general

Two prosecutors also testified. Diego Villafañe, who was Álvaro García Ortiz's right-hand man when he was State Prosecutor General, confirmed that he met twice with Jacobo Teijelo and Leire Díez. The lawyer – who is now part of Santos Cerdán's defense – introduced her as a “colleague and collaborator”, even though in both meetings she had minimal involvement. The prosecutor could not specify how the first meeting, which took place on March 6, 2025, and lasted fifteen minutes, was arranged, but he downplayed its significance: “It was insignificant, very scattered and aimless,” he explained to the judge, as ARA has learned.

What did they talk about? Teijelo limited himself to making “vague and generic references” to a hydrocarbons case, but what he explained “had no consistency”. He also spoke, among other things, about Colonel Antonio Balas or about José Antonio Choclán, Víctor de Aldama's lawyer. Although the judge requested information about it, Diego Villafañe also explained that lawyers' visits to the Prosecutor's Office “are never registered” and pointed out that at the public ministry's headquarters “there are no queues or access control”. Finally, he justified why he did not report Leire Díez when her name appeared in the media: “She did not pressure us in any way, there was no interference in our work”.

Also present at the first meeting was prosecutor Beatriz López, who also testified this morning. Villafañe suggested that she accompany him and believes the meeting was “surreal” and “bizarre”. When they left, they met the Attorney General, who asked them how it had gone: “I said: ‘I didn’t understand anything, I don’t know why they came.’ I offered them my notes and they told me no, to forget about it,” she recalled. On April 4, there was a second meeting, which only Diego Villafañe attended. It lasted ten minutes, was “empty” and “irrelevant” and served for Teijelo to complain that the Prosecutor's Office “systematically dismissed” all the complaints he filed: “Frankly, I wanted to get rid of him and be done with it,” the prosecutor concluded before the judge.