(Madrid) The former head of Spain’s conservative government Mariano Rajoy on Monday denied to MPs that he had knowledge, when he was in power, of the alleged spying of the former treasurer of his party who held compromising documents.
“I never knew of the existence of this operation […] I did not give any instructions, ”said Mariano Rajoy before a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
Operation Kitchen
In this incredible affair, baptized “Kitchen”, justice suspects an illegal espionage of the former treasurer of the Popular Party (PP) of Mr. Rajoy, Luis Barcenas, because he was in possession of compromising documents for several members of the government and the left.
Justice seeks to know if this police operation was carried out by the Minister of the Interior of Mariano Rajoy at the time, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, indicted in this case.
Annoyed, Mariano Rajoy asked the deputies to present “evidence that the Minister of the Interior participated in this operation”.
A sulphurous ex-policeman
The investigation into Operation Kitchen is one of the many cases opened by the Spanish justice system on the basis of searches carried out after the arrest in 2017 of the sulphurous ex-commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, known to have recorded without their knowledge many political and economic figures.
“I don’t know Mr. Villarejo […] I never spoke to him, ”also defended the former Prime Minister.
A conversation on file between Commissioner Villarejo and the informant of Operation Kitchen suggests that Barcenas also had compromising documents for Mr. Rajoy, Prime Minister from 2011 to 2018.
“Mr. Barcenas and Mr. Villarejo have serious problems in the courts, so they are defending themselves […] and since they have the right to lie, they say what they want, ”said Mariano Rajoy.
Luis Barcenas was at the center of the investigation into the “Gürtel” affair, an illegal financing scandal in which the PP ended up being condemned in May 2018, leading a few days later to the overthrow of Mariano Rajoy by the Chamber of Deputies .
Having come to power thanks to this overthrow, the Socialist Party of current Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his radical left ally Podemos have obtained the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into the “Kitchen” affair.