Zapatero requests to postpone his declaration for the Plus Ultra case beyond June 2

BarcelonaWith one week left before José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's appearance before the National High Court, former Spanish President Zapatero has requested to postpone his appearance before the investigating judge due to the complexity of the case. This was requested by his lawyer, as reported by Efe, after the environment of the former PSOE leader has already begun to publicly defend themselves against the accusations. His former advisor at Moncloa and now spokesperson, Luis Arroyo, also president of the Ateneu de Madrid, has pointed out that there are "political motivations" in his indictment and added in an interview with El Matí de Catalunya Ràdio that, in his opinion, he does not rule out that Judge José Luis Calama may decide to send him to pre-trial detention on June 2.

"Monumental error" and "conjecture after conjecture" have been two of the expressions that, like in recent days, Arroyo has used to describe the UDEF reports on which the investigation of the former socialist leader is based. "He [Zapatero] doesn't say lawfare, but [...] he does know that there are political motivations in his indictment," he explained. He recalled in this regard that the former president has mediated in "very complex cases," whether with Catalan independence or with the Venezuelan opposition. "He negotiated with ETA and was told that he had betrayed the dead," he added, before stating: "It's a major hunt."

In this regard, and when directly asked about this possibility, Arroyo acknowledged that he does not rule out that the judge may order provisional detention for Zapatero after his statement next week. "This is my opinion, but [...] once the Attorney General is convicted, anything is possible," he said. The spokesperson for the former PSOE leader wanted to compare the case in Calama's hands to that of former prosecutor Álvaro García Ortiz, convicted of revealing secrets, although he said nothing about the case that implicates former socialist leaders José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán, which – like Zapatero's – also has to do with the alleged collection of illegal commissions. And does the former president also fear prison? "He believes he will be able to resolve this brutal error by the UDEF. He is optimistic by definition," Arroyo limited himself to saying.

The spokesperson, who has also been interviewed on RAC1, reiterated that Zapatero has "the desire to express himself" and to be able to "explain these conjectures" about him. "He is not a cowardly person [...], he does not hide under the table. He stood firm with the 'No to war' and dialogued with ETA until its end," he insisted, while admitting that the former president is worried about the fact that so much has been said about his life and that of his daughters, as well as his office. "He is not comfortable at all," he said. Furthermore, he defended the legality of the "activities" of the former president and also the role of his daughters, of whom he said that they "worked" with their father in preparing reports and international trips, among other things.

Finally, Arroyo did not fail to criticize the fact that the photographs of the jewels found in Zapatero's officewere leaked to the press, emphasizing again that they correspond to family inheritances from Zapatero's mothers and his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa, and to "gifts". Regarding these objects, he justified their presence in a safe at the former president's office by the fact that he and his family have temporarily moved to a rental apartment while they are building a house on a plot of land they have purchased. A purchase, he said, that would explain the rapid cancellation of a mortgage that the UDEF has put under scrutiny. "It is not said that the cancellation is because the house was sold," he concluded.