There is a name linked to the PSOE that has appeared in the first two sessions of the Kitchen case trial, which implicates the leadership of the PP's Ministry of the Interior: Javier Pérez Dolset. He is a businessman and collaborator of Leire Díez, the former socialist militant nicknamed the plumber of the PSOE, and considers himself a victim of the state's dirty dealings. Months ago, he admitted to meeting with Santos Cerdán at Ferraz to hand over documents on irregular practices of Mariano Rajoy's government, and since last October he has been investigated for attempting to bribe two prosecutors. What is his connection to Kitchen? Four years ago, he provided the Spanish police's Internal Affairs Unit with a series of recordings by José Manuel Villarejo. And now, at the request of the retired commissioner, he will have to testify as a witness in the trial.

The Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Antonio Hernando, also a former deputy to Pedro Sánchez's chief of staff, admitted to the judge on Monday that he met with Leire Díez, the so-called plumber Hernando, a former member of the PSOE (now a former member), testified in the case concerning the actions of the so-called "patriotic police" against the Spanish president and his daughters. Hernando, who testified as a witness, also explained that he was informed that these police officers had been monitoring Sánchez's family before he took office, according to legal sources consulted by Europa Press. He did not clarify whether this meeting took place just before the Spanish prime minister took five days to reflect on whether or not to resign in the spring of 2024, during the Catalan election campaign. Hernando testified in the case overseen by Judge Arturo Zamarriego, which involves Díez, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and journalist Pere Rusiñol as defendants for allegedly seeking compromising information on Civil Guard officers and judges in exchange for favors. However, Leire Díez's version of events has always been that she was working on a journalistic investigation related to the inquiries of the so-called "patriotic police" into Catalan independence and the left. Aside from this case, Leire Díez is also under investigation in the case of the State Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI). within which context she was arrested along with the former president of this entity, Vicente Fernández, under the auspices of a secret case in the National Court investigating public contracts.

The acronym SEPI has been part of many headlines in recent days about the alleged corruption case involving former socialist activist Leire Díez, investigated under seal by National Court Judge Antonio Piña. It is the abbreviation of State Industrial Holdings CompanySEPI, a public entity attached to the Ministry of Finance, manages the Spanish state's stake in numerous strategic companies in sectors such as energy, defense, infrastructure, and telecommunications, among others. SEPI, in a way, acts as the Spanish government's investment arm, and its connection to the Leire Díez case stems from the very nature of the investigation, which involves several public contracts. The National Court believes that the former socialist activist, along with Vicente Fernández, former president of SEPI, and businessman Antxon Alonso—the three of them—are involved in the corruption scandal. arrested last week and now released on bail—, allegedly received around €750,000 in commissions in exchange for intervening in at least five transactions involving "public companies and entities dependent on SEPI (the Spanish State Holding Company)." This is stated in a ruling by Judge Piña, which several media outlets and news agencies have accessed in recent hours. The investigated transactions, which were allegedly carried out "through different public officials," took place at least between 2021 and 2023. It should be noted that the companies controlled by SEPI include Correos (the Spanish postal service), the energy company Enusa, the shipbuilding company Navantia, and the aircraft manufacturer Airbus. the Spanish multinational telecommunications company TelefónicaA legal case that has already received the intervention of the People's Party (PP), which has warned that it does not want to "remain impassive," in the words of the party's deputy secretary, Cuca Gamarra, who has dubbed the case the "Montero plot." Based on the investigations of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, the judge considers that the three individuals under investigation formed a group calling itself Hirurok, which "may have steered several files related to the public administration, for their own benefit or that of third parties, taking advantage of their position, connections, and influence." According to the ruling, the three allegedly acted in a coordinated manner and with the utmost discretion to "obtain the maximum economic benefit through the collection of commissions." The funds were allegedly channeled primarily through the company Mediaciones Martínez. The first transaction mentioned in the resolution is the granting of a bailout by SEPI to the company Tubos Reunidos for €112.8 million, in exchange for which the members of the Hirurok group allegedly received €114,950. Another transaction is the awarding of a contract by the public company Mercasa to Servinabar, a company owned by Alonso and linked to the former Socialist leader Santos Cerdán. The contract amount was €18,119.75 for "a technical report on the offices at Mercasa's headquarters."

Pedro Sánchez's government is increasingly dependent on the courts. Anxiety is spreading among the Socialist ranks, especially after a week that has brought two new developments: five arrests These events have brought to light two new cases—which remain secret—and a Civil Guard report that once again implicates José Luis Ábalos. These are ongoing investigations into issues that strike at the heart of the Spanish president's political roadmap and the origins of his rise to power. Of the five arrested, the National Court has released former Socialist Party member Leire Díez, Vicente Fernández Guerrero, former president of SEPI (State Holding Company for Industrial Participations), and Basque businessman Antxon Alonso, owner of the company Servinabar and a friend of Santos Cerdán, former PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) organizational secretary. All five were released with precautionary measures (passport confiscation and periodic court appearances) after the prosecution did not request their imprisonment.

Five arrests in 24 hours have increased the pressure on Pedro Sánchez. The arrests, carried out as part of separate operations, revealed the existence of two other judicial investigations into alleged corruption involving individuals and companies with connections to the Spanish government. The most recent arrests, made this Thursday by the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, were those of Julio Martínez, owner of the airline Plus Ultra, and the company's CEO, Roberto Roselli. According to sources close to the investigation cited by EFE, the action is part of an investigation into alleged money laundering led by Madrid's Court of Instruction Number 15. Why is the Spanish Prime Minister being targeted? Plus Ultra was bailed out by the State with 53 million euros in 2021 in an operation that generated controversy due to doubts about its viability and alleged links to Chavismo.

This analysis can tell you today that Negotiations between the PSOE, PSC, Esquerra and the Spanish government for the new financing system have come to an endThere is agreement on the resulting figure for Catalonia from the improvement and also on how the new model will work. However, there is no definitive agreement on the transfer of powers currently held by the Spanish Tax Agency to the Catalan Tax Agency. It appears that Vice President Montero, who is expected to run as a candidate for Andalusia, is the most reluctant.

The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard arrested former PSOE member Leire Díez and former president of SEPI, the state investment arm, Vicente Fernández Guerrero, on Wednesday, according to sources within the Civil Guard who spoke to ARA. The arrests were made on the orders of the National Court as part of an open case related to the awarding of public contracts and are under seal. The investigation was initiated by Investigating Court Number 6, headed by Judge Antonio Piña, and is overseen by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke to EFE. This is a different judge than the one investigating the Koldo case. The first reaction from the PSOE came from the halls of Congress. Party spokesperson Montse Mínguez simply reiterated that Leire Díez "is not a member" of the party and expressed "absolute" respect for the investigation being conducted by the Civil Guard and the National Court. "It's time for justice," she concluded. In fact, after her name became known and her audio recordings of maneuvering against the Civil Guard were leaked, Ferraz distanced itself from her actions and suspended her party membership. Furthermore, from the outset, Díez—who was also a Socialist councilwoman in Cantabria—denied acting on behalf of the PSOE and claimed that I was working on a journalistic investigation Regarding irregular police practices.

Did Leire Díez offer legal benefits in exchange for dirty laundry about Civil Guard investigators? And if so, was she acting on behalf of the PSOE? Whose orders was she following? Both she and the socialists deny That the journalist and former activist worked for the party, a new audio recording points in the opposite direction. According to the recording of a conversation she had with prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, which has been leaked to media outlets in recent hours such as The Country and The WorldDíez presented himself as "the person the PSOE has put in place" and, more specifically, as the "right-hand man" of Santos Cerdán, former number three in the party and now under investigation—and in pretrial detention—in the Koldo case.

Pedro Sánchez is the one who allegedly gave the order to dig up dirt within the Civil Guard and the Prosecutor's Office. Specifically, dirt on those investigating cases surrounding the Spanish president. This is what he conveys to prosecutor Ignacio Stampa in the complaint he filed against former PSOE member Leire Díez and businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, with whom he met on May 7, for alleged bribery. These two individuals allegedly asked him for information about irregularities by Anti-Corruption prosecutors in a meeting that, initially, was intended to convey an apology from the Spanish government for his "unfair" departure from the Public Prosecutor's Office.

A Madrid judge, Arturo Zamarriego, corrected himself on Friday and agreed to incorporate two complaints from two Anti-Corruption prosecutors into a case he has open against former PSOE member Leire Díez. They are Ignacio Stampa and José Grinda, who maintain that the group formed mainly by Díez, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and journalist Patrícia López bribed them: they offered them benefits from the Spanish government in exchange for judicial favors and/or compromising information from Civil Guard investigators or other prosecutors to discredit them. Zamarriego already had proceedings open against Leire Díez following the publication of audio recordings in which he could be heard offering deals to defendants in exchange for information about Antonio Balas, for example, who is the head of the UCO investigating the Cerdán case.

A new chapter in the dirty war surrounding Leire Díez, the former PSOE journalist caught digging up dirt on members of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Civil Guard's Unit of the Civil Guard. According to ARA, she has filed a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office against Anti-Corruption Prosecutor José Grinda, revealing a feud with him that has been going on for the past two years. She accuses him of filing a false complaint against her last February and accuses him of repeated disclosure of secrets, threats, coercion, and bribery. Grinda is the prosecutor behind the investigations into the 3% case and the Palau case.

Leire Diez, investigated in a Madrid court for bribery and influence peddling, has been the PP's choice to resume, after the summer recess, the crusade in the Senate against the PSOE for its alleged corruption cases. The former Socialist militant appeared before the commission of inquiry into the Koldo case and, despite his legal status, did not remain silent and refuted the accusations from the right and the far right, insisting on the narrative he has deployed since the scandal broke. "I'm not a plumber, I'm a journalist," he asserted, reiterating that he is working on the publication of a book on "the malfunctioning of institutions," hence the collection of audio recordings that have been released in which he allegedly interferes in judicial proceedings. Díez claimed that the investigation he has conducted is not to favor the PSOE but in favor of the "rule of law," and denied that he was "well connected" within the party, thus distancing himself from both the PSOE and former party leader Santos Cerdán.

Several judges are hearing complaints against Leire Díez for alleged maneuvers to try to influence judicial processes revealed by the audio recordings leaked a couple of months ago. For the first time, one of them, the head of the investigating court number 9 of Madrid, has taken the step of charging the former PSOE member. Judge Arturo Zamarriego has opened an investigation against Díez for bribery and influence peddling and has summoned her to testify as a suspect on November 11, according to Efe.

In the midst of a whirlwind of information about the political developments and consequences of the Santos Cerdán case, the plot surrounding Leire Díez seems to have been left in the background. But the name of the former socialist activist, whose audio recordings were leaked trying to uncover information about the Civil Guard, is appearing in the headlines due to the thread that links her to the former number 3 of the PSOE. In the last few hours, it has also become known that a Madrid court has initiated an investigation against her for the first time, according to media outlets such as The Independent and The reason and sources from the Madrid High Court of Justice (TSJM) have confirmed to ARA.

"There is no element, of minimal consistency, that allows us to consider as a minimally feasible hypothesis that Koldo García had the status of undercover agent or provocateur, a supposed status in which he would have persisted for years, having established an intense relationship with Santos, undoubtedly long before the formation of the Progressive government and the negotiations with the nationalist political forces to which the investigated repeatedly refers as a driving force for his indictment." With this forcefulness, the investigating judge in the Cerdán case, Leopoldo Puente, defused this Monday one of the main insinuations of the defense strategy of the former number 3 of the PSOE: that Koldo García, the former advisor to the former, was in collusion with the Civil Guard.

A week after Leire Díez handed over to the PSOE the pen drive With the information he has been gathering, several media outlets have begun publishing some of its content. The former Socialist activist revealed that it was documentation and audio recordings obtained as part of the alleged journalistic investigation he is conducting into the state's police sewers. The PSOE handed over the pen drive in the Prosecutor's Office Although, according to Díez, a large part of the files had already been processed for judicial review. However, among the audio recordings that have been revealed, there are also unpublished recordings that had not yet come to light.

The most sordid week in Spanish politics is still in its infancy, with the spectacle that Leire Díez, Javier Pérez Dolset, and Víctor de Aldama staged on Wednesday in a Madrid hotel. Three figures who were virtually unknown until recently.

When last Monday, May 26, broke out the Leire Díez case with the audio he published The Confidential, one of the interlocutors in the conversation revealed by the aforementioned media, had a trial in the National Court. The businessman, Alejandro Hamlyn, exiled in Dubai, is unable to leave the United Arab Emirates due to a €5,000 debt with the country, so the session was postponed until June 30. Norberto Uzal, considered the second in command in the so-called Drake case, did appear in court. The case will judge the €154 million VAT fraud on hydrocarbons by the company Hafesa, for which these two protagonists were the main perpetrators. But who is Uzal, and why are so many cases involving the hydrocarbon sector surrounding the latest episode of the dirty war in the State?

"The moment is difficult for us, no one denies it, but above all because of the general atmosphere. It's shit and chaos, especially caused by the right and the far right. You take reality and the country is going in a different direction. Do we have to deal with this? Of course. What the PP is doing isn't good? For no one. But the polls show it's only good for Vox." This is how Spanish government sources summarize the situation facing Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE following the outbreak of the Leire Díez case, about which the Spanish president remains silent and to which the party has reacted by trailing. It took the PSOE 48 hours to open an information file on the activist after audio recordings were released in which she offered judicial benefits to an accused businessman, and this Wednesday It took another 24 hours to announce that he would take the matter to the Prosecutor's Office he pendrive with documentation that Díez had handed over on Tuesday afternoon, when he appeared at Ferraz to explain what was happening.

Ramón del Valle-Inclán (Vilanova de Arousa, 1866 - Santiago de Compostela, 1936) was a key figure in Spanish literature in the first third of the 20th century with works such as Lights of Bohemia, where she develops the theory of the grotesque. Since then, this word has been used to define tragicomic spectacles such as the one witnessed this Wednesday in a Madrid hotel with the appearance of the now former PSOE member Leire Díez and the appearance of the businessman accused of corruption, Víctor de Aldama, to rebuke her. But let's take it one step at a time.