The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard infers from the intercepted messages of the alleged plot of the former socialist militant Leire Díez that, when its alleged members refer to “the one” (the one, in English), they can “only” be referring to Pedro Sánchez. This statement appears in a report dated last May 26 “on facts of apparent criminal nature” that has been incorporated into the case instructed by the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz and to which EL PAÍS has had access.
In this police document, in which the “activity carried out” by the alleged network is analyzed, it points out that the message from which the agents draw the conclusion was written on January 13, 2025, by Díez to Vicente Fernández, former president of the State Society of Industrial Participation (SEPI), also charged in the case. In a conversation held through the instant messaging application Signal, Díez tells Fernández: “I am going to convey to Santi [Cerdán] what L. [supposedly, Leonardo Sánchez Heredero, president of the real estate group Delta] said, but I have to do it my way if I want it to turn out well. I know him and right now his priority is hydrocarbons by order of the one.” At this point, the UCO infers that this nickname supposedly refers to Pedro Sánchez.
“Taking into account the person being referred to (Santos) and his organic position (at that time Secretary of Organization of the PSOE), the reference to the one is considered to only be made to the President of the Government and Secretary General of the Party,” the police document states. To this end, it deduces that the president of the Government is “the only person who by his position could be in a position to order something to Santos within the party and, on the other hand, by the implicit meaning of the reference “one”, from which it is deduced that it would be made to a person who was at the first level of responsibility”.
Another of the references to the “one” that the UCO makes in its report is framed in a conversation between Leire Díez and the lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, also investigated in this case. According to the agents, Teijelo had been assigned within the plot a line focused on several judicial investigations related to fraud in the hydrocarbons sector, “considering them linked to the cases affecting the party and the Government.” The UCO emphasizes that this was considered “a priority line of the organization, as evidenced by numerous elements, among which stands out that, in Leire’s words, this line would have been Santos’ [Cerdán] priority ”by order of the one“.
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The agents also highlight regarding the use by the former militant “of the nickname one” or, in its translation, “one” to refer to the president of the Government or the secretary general of the PSOE”, the content of a document prepared by the Civil Guard commander Rubén Villalba ―charged in the Koldo corruption case― after a meeting with Díez, where the armed institute’s commander states that “Leire insists [that] she has access to the 1, sometimes referring to the 1 of the party through its Secretariat and other times to the 1 of the Government”.
The UCO also includes in its report a conversation from February 15, 2025, between Díez and the former president of Sepi in which, following the publication in the press of a news item that referred to her as “a plumber from Ferraz,” she tells Vicente Fernández: “Yesterday the one told S to tell me that I am doing a huge job and not to get discouraged.” The UCO considers that when Díez talks about “S” she refers to Cerdán.
The agents mention another conversation between Díez and Fernández in September 2024, after El Confidencial published that she had been collecting information for months about members of the Judiciary and journalists to launch “a propaganda operation to dilute the scandals” affecting the Government. According to the UCO, from that conversation “the existing concern about the possibility that Leire would desist” in the task she was immersed in is inferred. However, the report points out, that situation did not occur and Leire even told Fernández: “The one says to continue. That I am doing great things and not to give up.” The agents point out that this statement is “likely referring to the president of the Government”.
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