It is 10:11 this Thursday and Mariano Rajoy, former President of the Government and of the PP, asks a question as soon as he enters the courtroom trying the Kitchen case: “Where am I going?”. After getting the answer, he then heads to the microphone in front of the three magistrates to become the 44th witness in the oral hearing on the espionage of former popular treasurer Luis Bárcenas. From that moment on and for 36 minutes, Rajoy will not only deny knowing about his party’s slush fund (proven by justice) and the operation concocted against the former conservative accountant. But, far from what he had done until now, he will unequivocally support the actions of his leadership at the Ministry of Interior and the National Police, who are in the dock, with Jorge Fernández Díaz at the helm: “I am convinced that this police operation complied with legality,” he concluded.
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Precisely, the court sitting this Thursday opposite Rajoy, presided over by magistrate Teresa Palacios, will be responsible for clarifying that point which the former popular leader already has so clear. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the other accusations maintain that Kitchen’s objective was to steal sensitive material from Bárcenas that he might still have from high-ranking PP officials (including a supposed recording of the former president with the treasurer, where they talked about the slush fund), to prevent it from reaching the investigators of the Gürtel case, which was closing in on the party.
The summary never pointed to the former head of the Executive; but an Internal Affairs report preliminarily concluded that, based on audios intercepted from Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, a person nicknamed El Asturiano would have “knowledge” of the plot. Chief Inspector Gonzalo Fraga, Kitchen’s lead investigator, stated last week that this was the nickname used by some involved to refer to Rajoy. Therefore, his interrogation this Thursday began with this question:
—Do you recognize yourself [in those nicknames]? —asked the PSOE lawyer, who is acting as popular prosecutor.
—My name is Mariano Rajoy, as everyone knows. And then everyone calls me what they want.
The former president arrived at this morning’s appointment marked by Bárcenas’s statement last Monday, when he pointed to the PP’s organic officials as the ultimate responsible parties for Kitchen (“this operation is initiated by the party’s officials”) and assured that the plot “stole” a recording from him of Rajoy, where he was heard destroying a page of the party’s parallel accounting. To this, this Thursday, the former head of the Government responded emphatically: “That is absolutely false.” And were you informed of the slush fund? “No”.
Rajoy’s ‘noes’ have been constant. Were measures adopted to destroy evidence that could implicate the PP in Gürtel and in the PP’s slush fund accounting? “No”. No type of measure? “No”. Were contacts maintained with Bárcenas to influence his statement? “No”. Were you aware that Bárcenas was pressured by the party? “That is absolutely false”. Were you aware of the surveillance of his wife and son? “No”. And so, until 10:47, when his interrogation ended.
Throughout his appearance, Rajoy stressed that he never gave any instructions to Fernández Díaz on how to approach the Gürtel case; and he emphasized that he also never “discussed” Kitchen with Francisco Martínez, the minister’s former right-hand man and also an accused. “My peace of mind was absolute, and I don’t believe [Bárcenas] had [that recording with him]; because, if he had had it, he would have made it public as he has done with other documents,” he added. “And I have never met Villarejo,” he assured, before denying having received any message from the commissioner.
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Third statement
Mariano Rajoy can now say that, for him, there are no two without three at the Audiencia Nacional. The former President of the Government and of the PP has once again sat before this court to testify as a witness. As he did in 2017 in the main part of the Gürtel case, and in 2021 in the case about Bárcenas’s papers. And, as on those occasions, a big day atmosphere was felt at the doors of the Audiencia Nacional this Thursday.
Dozens of cameras and journalists gathered very early in front of the court’s headquarters in an industrial estate in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid). The trial returned here this Thursday, after two sessions in the building on Madrid’s Génova street, a few meters from the popular party’s headquarters. For television crews and photographers, there was one image to capture above all others: that of Mariano Rajoy making his entrance. But the former president avoided that snapshot and entered by car through the garage (a privilege not usually granted to witnesses).
Fernández Díaz and Martínez listened to Rajoy’s testimony away from the dock. This Thursday they sat behind their lawyers. From there, they were able to observe how they were given a good defense. The former president of the Executive, despite having denied any knowledge of Kitchen, expressed his confidence in both: “Here, in this whole matter, there was no political operation. There was a police operation, whose fundamental objective was to seize Bárcenas’s money and his straw men,” he said, in line with the thesis of several defenses. “But, as you will understand, the president is not involved in this,” he continued. “And I am convinced that this police operation complied with legality.”
Rajoy ruled out that a minister would be aware of specific operations or pending the recruitment of informants —the plot secured the collaboration of the former treasurer’s driver, Sergio Ríos, whom they paid with money from reserved funds—. “It would be absurd,” he elaborated. The former head of the Government indicated that Fernández Díaz was not in charge of the reserved funds either; and that Martínez only signed the allocations destined for each body, but did not delve into what those amounts were used for.
The messages with Bárcenas
For several minutes, the popular prosecutors (PSOE and Podemos) showed Rajoy the series of messages he exchanged with Bárcenas in those years of the Gürtel outbreak. He said he only remembered sending or receiving one. The one he sent to the former treasurer with the text “Luis, be strong”: “I remembered that one because, over the last 15 years, it has been published almost every day”. About the rest: “I have no idea whatsoever,” he clarified.
Rajoy admitted that his relationship with Bárcenas soured. “It changed when I had the certainty and awareness that he had 48 million euros in Switzerland; before, there was a certain presumption,” he fired at the former treasurer. And when did that happen? “I don’t remember, it must have been in 2012 and 2013 […] When we became convinced that he was not clean.” The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not ask the former president any questions.
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